Worlds Collide
by EvilRegalGleek
Summary: How far is a man willing to go to get what he wants when he has lost nearly all that he has to lose? AU. Future. Main ships are Finchel and Klaine. Brittana, Wemma, and Artina are also endgame. Klaine are getting ready to start a family and Finn is raising Quinn's daughter but married to Rachel. Some characters and references to Kurt's childhood are borrowed from Keitorin Asthore.
1. Looking Back

**August 2021**

"Glee's about learning how to accept yourself for who you are, no matter what other people think. And that's what this music is all about."

Eleven-year-old Lily Hudson smiled as she ran her fingers over her father's senior quote in the 2012 edition of the McKinley High Thunderclap. She skimmed slightly ahead in the alphabetical listings. Predictably, the next person who's name she cared about was Kurt Hummel, her uncle. His senior quote had been, "When you're different, when you're special, sometimes you have to get used to being alone."

"Why would Uncle Kurt ever have to be alone?" Lily wondered in her head. "Everyone _loves_ him!"

_Not everyone_, she remembered as she recalled Kurt having to briefly transfer schools to escape from a certain bully. But that bully had ended up in jail less than a year after Kurt's transfer, so in the long run, all he had managed to accomplish was bringing Kurt and Blaine closer together. So he had essentially lost.

Lily liked to spend hours skimming through the pages of the yearbook, replaying the stories in her mind about the people she'd heard about from her family and making up stories in her head about the people her father hadn't known or told her about. Finn had given her a copy of this yearbook when she was six, mostly because of the memorial page in the back.

_"To our beloved Quinn,_  
_You are always in our hearts. We know you are up there singing with the angels_  
_With love, Mom and Dad"_

Pictures of Lily's mother lined the border of the entire page. Lily herself was in several of them. If she could have had any wish in the world, it would have been to have just _one_ clear memory of her mother. People had always told her to appreciate the fact that having no memories of Quinn meant having nothing to really miss, but it was hard to appreciate what felt like an empty hole.

Lily flipped back to the sports section to locate her father's best friend, Sam Evans. In high school, he had been the quarterback after Finn quit football to spend more time with Lily. Now Sam worked as a building manager at Habitat for Humanity. He visited once or twice a year when he could but his building sites were usually in Ohio.

"Hey, Drizzle," said Lily's father, entering her open room.

"Who is this guy?" asked Lily, pointing to the picture of the man standing next to Sam, gazing intensely and proudly sporting a football uniform. "Is there something wrong with his head, or was this a normal way for people to do their hair back in your day?"

Finn grimaced, and not just because Lily had a way of making him feel old. "He had an unusual idea of what was a good hairstyle, that's for sure."

"Did you know him?" asked Lily.

"He was…" Finn glanced around the room nonchalantly. "He was a friend of your mom's for a while."

"Was he in New Directions, too?" Lily asked.

"Yeah," said Finn. "He thought the whole idea of Glee club was stupid at first, but he was a really good singer. Your mom sort of convinced him to try it out. That's how she knew him."

Lily kept starring at the photo of the broody football player with the Mohawk. This wasn't exactly the type of person she'd ever pictured her mom being friends with. The look in his eyes seemed a little…angry. Almost mournful.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure," said Finn, squeezing her daughter's shoulder.

"What was the last thing you said to my mom?"

Finn visibly shuddered at the question. "Why do you want to know that?"

"I just…" Lily bit her lip, suddenly feeling embarrassed about having asked the question. "It's so…"

So _frustrating_ that she couldn't remember _anything_.

"I don't remember the exact last words I said to her," said Finn. "I know that we'd just been talking about you and how much we both loved you. And then she left to go to that party."

Actually, he was pretty sure that his last words to Quinn were something along the lines of, "I'm done with you. Lily will always be welcome in my house but you will never be. Get the hell out." But he'd certainly rather that his daughter not know that.

"Was she drunk already when she left the house?" asked Lily.

"No," said Finn. "But everyone else at the party was already drunk except for Kurt."

"Oh," said Lily. She hadn't known Kurt was at the party where her mother had gotten drunk the night of her fatal car crash. "Were we at the party too?"

"Nope," said Finn. "You stayed home with me. We just had some down time. Played with your stuffed animals on the bed for a while and then you fell asleep on my chest while I played X-Box."

"Who else was at the party?" asked Lily. "Blaine? Rachel?"

"Yes," said Finn. "But like I said, Kurt was the only one who stayed sober."

"Hmmm," said Lily, glancing away from her father, aggravation etched on her face.

"Why don't you go take Star for another walk?" said Finn.

"Okay," said Lily. She snapped the yearbook shut and tucked it under her pillow. "You know why we decided to name her Star?" said Lily. "Because metaphors are important, and gold stars are a metaphor for Rachel being a star." Then she ran off.

Finn smiled. Then he wondered where Lily had gotten that exact dialogue from. Rachel hadn't had to explain her gold star metaphor in years, everyone just knew. Finn quickly flipped open the yearbook. Of course: it had been Rachel's senior quote.

Then, out of curiosity, Finn skimmed forward to Puck's page. His senior quote was, "Hey losers, tell your mom to call. I'll clean the pool and any other clogged plumbing."

Maybe giving Lily this book wasn't such a good idea after all.

* * *

"Star, come here!" called Lily. "Time for a walk!"

The six-month-old golden retriever yipped loudly. Lily laughed and patted her leg so that the dog would follow her towards the front door, then rounded the corner only to see… her two tiny half-siblings sitting on the tile floor by the coat closet rifling through her backpack.

"_Hey_! What do you think you're doing?"

"Looking for cookies," said three-year-old Ariana.

"Daddy put the cookie jar on top of the fwidge," said two-year-old Aiden. "We can't weach it anymore. We too wittle."

"There are no _cookies _in my backpack!" snapped Lily.

"We found one once," said Ariana smugly.

"When?" asked Lily.

Ariana shrugged. "A couple of whiles ago."

"Hmm," thought Lily. "Wait a minute, so _that's_ what happened to the cookie Rachel gave me last week?" she roared angrily. "I thought that Star ate it!"

"Uh-uh," said Aiden. "It was us."

"Daddy!" yelled Lily. "Ariana and Aiden have been going through my backpack every day looking for stuff!"

"Then don't leave it laying around on the floor!" Finn called back.

Lily groaned and huffed. "Only three days into the school year and_ this_ is what I've got to deal with!" She picked up her backpack and chunked it on the counter. Her stepmother hated it when she left things lying around on the counter. No matter, she'd put it back in her room after she was done walking Star. Aiden and Ariana got up and looked up at her with big sad eyes.

"We sowy Sissy," said Aiden.

Lily sighed. Her siblings often behaved like little monsters, but when it came down to it, they were too cute for her to stay mad at for long. Both of them had soft brown hair slightly lighter than her stepmother's. Aiden's was short but Ariana's hung down her back in a long braid all the time. Ariana had her mother's eyes and her father's nose, Aiden had his father's eyes and his mother's nose. Both of them had Finn's sweet smile.

"It's okay," mumbled Lily. "Just don't do it again." She pulled Star's leash down from it's hook and clipped it on her collar.

"Can we come with you?" asked Ariana.

"No," said Lily. "Star is a puppy so she runs too fast for you to keep up."

Ariana and Aiden looked at each other, then looked up at Lily simultaneously with their sad little faces again. "Pwease?" said Aiden.

"_No!" _said Lily. Before they could try to con her into doing anything else, she walked out the door and shut it behind her.

* * *

Half an hour away, Rachel and Kurt were stuffed into a booth at a recording studio. The background instrumental reached its peak as they both broke into song.

"_You're here  
__There's nothing to fear  
__And I know that my heart will go on  
We'll stay forever this way  
You are safe in my heart  
And my heart will go on and on_"

"Stop!" snapped Kurt, pressing the button that shut off the soundtrack. "That's _enough_."

Rachel glanced up in surprise. "What's wrong?"

"This whole time I've been feeling like you're the singer and I'm just your backup," said Kurt.

"Because we specifically agreed that _I _would be the lead vocal for all the Celine covers and you would be the lead vocal for all our Barbra covers," said Rachel. "What's the problem?"

Kurt didn't say anything for a minute. "I never get to do anything you get to do," he mumbled.

Rachel was startled for a moment. Then she said, "What's _really_ wrong?"

"I just told you?" said Kurt.

"No," said Rachel. "You've been brooding."

"Have _not_," said Kurt.

"Have too," said Rachel "I know you, Kurt. When you resent someone you don't just come out and say it. You sit around brooding about it for days until one of us figures it out."

"Brittany and Santana are having a baby," Kurt blurted out.

"_What?_" said Rachel. "Since when? Nobody told me! When's the due date?"

"If all goes well, seven months from yesterday," mumbled Kurt bitterly. "Santana is having it. Brittany called me yesterday talking about how "magical" Santana is for coming up with a "new" way to have kids when they discovered that the stork is a bigot. Then she told me Blaine and I should try it sometime."

"Aww," said Rachel. "Well, this is wonderful."

"No it isn't," said Kurt flatly. "Do you have _any_ idea how easy your life is? When Artie and Tina had trouble conceiving, all _they_ had to do is fill out a bunch of adoption papers. Brittany and Santana just went to a sperm bank. All Sam and Marley had to do was throw out the birth control. And you…you had two _without even trying_!"

Rachel exhaled slowly. "I'm sorry. I had no idea you were jealous."

"I'm not," said Kurt quietly. "I just wish something could be easy for us for once. Is that too much to ask, Rachel?"

Rachel got up, stood next to Kurt's chair, and put her hand on his shoulder. "That's why you and Blaine decided to settle down when we did, isn't it? You wanted to start a family."

Kurt closed his eyes tightly and nodded. That meant he was crying. "Why didn't you tell me?" asked Rachel softly.

"Same reason you didn't announce your pregnancies until you were a couple of months along," said Kurt. "You didn't want anyone asking about it constantly until you were sure. And apparently, for us, it's not going to. Babies are in such high demand that adoption has become virtually impossible for even heterosexual couples, and the only two people who answered our ad about hiring a surrogate were prostitutes."

Rachel tried to lean over and hug Kurt, but he just got up. "Please just leave me alone," snapped Kurt on the way out the door

* * *

Rachel spent the drive home lost in thought and basically feeling like the most selfish friend ever.

She remembered the day she found out she was pregnant with Ariana. Before she said anything to her dads or even Finn, she ran to her bedroom, ripped out her phone, and called Kurt.

_"Hello?" he'd answered._

_"I'm pregnant."_

_A momentary pause. "What?"_

_"I'm pregnant."_

_"It's not April fools day, Rachel."_

_"I'm not kidding!" Rachel finally half screamed as she burst into tears. "What am I gonna do? I'm too young to settle down! This wasn't supposed to happen until I was twenty-five and had won a Tony!"_

_"You _will _win a Tony," Kurt insisted, wishing he were close enough to shake her by the shoulders and remind her where she was. "Listen to me. You're Rachel Berry. This is just a speed bump for you. You _will_ find a way to do it all. Okay?"_

_Rachel sniffed. "Okay." She sat down and thought to herself how lucky Blaine and Kurt were that they couldn't possibly have an oops baby. They could plan out their family the right way._

_Then, of course, came Santana's screams from the living room. "Shoot, gotta go Kurt!" she hit the red button._

"How could I have been so stupid?" Rachel wondered aloud. Whatever envy she felt towards Kurt and Blaine's life, it couldn't be anything compared to the way they envied hers.

For three years now Kurt had been the first person she'd call besides Finn every time she had news about her children. Ariana sat up for the first time. Aiden said his first word. Ariana won her first dance competition. Aiden started learning how to sing. Ariana got into preschool. Now Rachel realized that Kurt must have watched her children grow up masking the pain of not being able to have his own.

Her car pulled into the driveway and she pulled the keys out of the ignition.

"Hi Rachel!" yelled Lily, tearing over to her from the sidewalk, being pulled by their exuberant pup. Rachel slammed the car door shut and ruffled the girl's hair. "Is your album finished yet?" asked Lily.

"No," said Rachel. "It might take awhile. We haven't bought the rights to cover some of the songs we want to do yet."

"You guys should cover a Mellencamp song if you want Grandpa to listen to it," said Lily. "He won't listen to anything else."

"He'll listen to anything your Uncle Kurt sings," said Rachel, nudging open the door to their house.

"I found out what Uncle Kurt's favorite band was when he was my age," said Lily.

"Oh yeah?" said Rachel.

"Mhm." Lily hung Star's leash back up on it's hook. "The Jonas Brothers. He still has some really old posters in a box that he showed me and went on and on about how Joe was the cutest."

"What does _he_ know?" said Rachel. "Nick was the cutest."

"He used to sit at his desk writing "Mr. Kurt Jonas, Kurt Hummel-Jonas, Kurt and Joe Jonas" and other stuff like that with big hearts around it when he was in middle school," said Lily. She discreetly removed her backpack from the counter.

"Oh, I know," said Rachel. "I know the stories." She decided to refrain from mentioning the thousand or so times during her sophomore year of high school that Kurt had glanced over at her biology notes or sheet music and seen "Finn and Rachel Hudson" with a massive red heart drawn around it. And worse, the number of times she had glanced back and seen "Finn and Kurt Hudson-Hummel" written on _Kurt's_ paper.

Ultimately, of course, it had all worked out. Or so she'd thought.

"MOMMY!" Rachel glanced around the corner and saw Aiden standing with a wide smile. He bolted over to her and jumped into her arms, Ariana lagging a minute or so behind.

"Grandma says it's almost dinnertime," said Aiden.

"Guess I'd better freshen up then," said Rachel.

"I have to feed Star," said Lily, ducking into the kitchen where the bag of dog food was.

"Wanna help!" whined Ariana.

"Me too!" said Aiden.

On her way upstairs, Rachel stopped to glance at a random photo of Kurt and Blaine framed in the hallway. Suddenly, it looked frightfully...empty.

Her life was so much fuller than theirs. This wasn't fair. This wasn't right.

_I'm going to help Kurt and Blaine get a baby_, Rachel decided. _No matter what it costs me._

"Hey you," said Finn, coming up behind Rachel and starling her slightly with an affectionate squeeze. "How was your day?"

Rachel bit her lip. "It was alright. We managed to record two covers we've been working on. We talked about some stuff…" she hesitated. "Like the reason he and Blaine decided to settle down."

"Because they want to start a family."

"You…you _knew_?" whispered Rachel disbelievingly.

"They've _barely_ told anyone," Finn assured her. "Burt and Carole don't know either. They told me a while ago and I think Blaine told his sister, but that's it."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Kurt asked me not to. He didn't want you to feel uncomfortable talking to him about our kids."

That just made Rachel feel even worse.

"I want to help him," she said quietly.

"Then offer to help," said Finn. "Let them know you're there for them. That's all you can do, right?" He kissed her on the top of the head.

"I guess," said Rachel. "How was_ your _day?"

"Mostly same old, same old," said Finn. "Lily started asking me stuff about Quinn out of the blue."

"Like what?"

"The last thing I said to her before she died. I pretended not to remember."

Rachel squeezed Finn's shoulder. "How long are you planning on hiding it from her?"

"Hiding what?" asked Finn.

"That you and Quinn had a fight the last time you talked? That you broke up before she died? That Puck…"

"Hey Finchel!" they heard Burt yell from across the hallway. "Dinner's ready!"

Finn paused long enough to look down at Rachel. "_Forever_."

"You coming?" called Lily from a distance.

"Yes!" yelled both Finn and Rachel, startling the other one slightly.

"I'm her father," said Finn as he reached for the door handle and stepped out. "That's all she needs to know."

* * *

Somewhere in L.A., Noah Puckerman stood in front of the calendar. Not that he needed to be. The upcoming date was etched in his memory so deep he sometimes swore he could smell it coming. And now, here it was.

"It's been two years. Two god damned years and it never got any easier." Whoever the hell decided that time heals all wounds must have lived in a magic bubble of fairy dust where pain was never invented. Time only ever made things worse.

And now, it was _time_ to take action.

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for reading, everyone! Just so you know, this is the third story in my alternate universe where Kurt talks Rachel out of telling Finn the truth about how Quinn got pregnant. The result: Rachel is somewhat more humble, Hummelberry bond and become best friends early on and Finn does not find out that Lilian Carole Hudson isn't his biological daughter until Puck finally tells him in Silly Love Songs, at which point he has already been raising her for almost a year and refuses to give her up even after Quinn dies in Blame It On The Alcohol. Also, Finchel, Klaine, Brittana, and Wemma are all endgame. The first story in this 'verse is called Better Left Unspoken and the second is called For Better Or For Worse but you don't have to read them in order to understand this one.**

**The bits about Kurt's Jonas Brothers phase and Blaine having a sister were inspired by the brilliant headcanon of Keitorin Asthore, a hardcore Klaine shipper who's stories I practically worship. I highly recommend them if you're a fan of Klaine, Furt, the Hudmels, Kurt sickfics, or Kurt in general.**


	2. Parenthood

"We're here, Mommy! We're here!" said Ariana excitedly. "There's Uncle Kurt's car behind you!"

Rachel glanced in her rearview mirror and smiled. Sure enough, there was Kurt in his five-year-old silver station wagon. With a pang she realized that he must have purchased it with a family in mind.

"Is Uncle Blaine here too?"

"I think he's at a rehearsal," said Rachel.

"What's a hersal?" asked Ariana.

"It's when you practice before you put on a show," Rachel tried to explain.

"Did you ever have a hersal when you were on Broadway?" asked Ariana.

"All the time," said Rachel. She pulled in a parking space and nearly jumped with a start when Kurt tapped on the window behind her. He walked his fingers up the windowpane like spider legs and made Ariana laugh, then pulled her out of her car seat when Rachel unlocked the doors.

"Thanks for coming," said Rachel.

"Of _course_," said Kurt with a smile as he set Ariana down on the floor beside them and grasped her hand. "It's my job to make sure that my nieces are the best dressed children in Brooklyn."

Rachel smiled. "Actually, we're here to do preschool shopping, remember?"

"Of course we are," said Kurt. "She'll need a new backpack for preschool, new crayons, a new lunchbox, new dresses, new shirts, new socks…" Rachel half-grinned doubtfully. "Okay, maybe not socks."

Kurt and Rachel laughed. Ariana beamed. "I'm gonna be a big girl now. Aiden will be the baby and Lily and I will be the big girls."

Kurt and Rachel glanced at each other and laughed again. Neither one of them pointed out that it was only one year before Aiden, too, would be off to preschool.

"All my babies are growing up," Rachel whined jokingly. Then she bit her lip, remembering that Kurt didn't even have a baby yet.

"It's okay," Kurt assured her. "I don't mind."

Rachel didn't say anything, because she knew he did.

"Ariana," said Kurt. "What should we look at first?"

"_Everything_!" she squealed, squeezing Rachel and Kurt's hands and beaming again, obviously thrilled to be getting ready to be a "big girl" _and _to be getting special attention from two of the adults in her life.

"I'm sorry, Kurt," said Rachel.

"It's not _your_ fault," said Kurt quietly. "Ariana, I see princess backpacks!"

Ariana squealed and dragged him towards the door before Rachel could say anything else. She grabbed a shopping cart and walked back over to the backpacks.

"I want this one!" Ariana tossed a small backpack to Kurt and he caught it. "And this one!"

"Only _one_ backpack," said Rachel.

Ariana pouted for a second until it became clear that her mother wasn't going to give in. "Uncle Kurt, should I get the Nemo one or the Ariel one?"

"Definitely the Ariel one," said Kurt. "Because she's _real._" Ariana's eyes widened. "It's true. I met her once. She called me a prince."

Ariana wordlessly hugged the Little Mermaid backpack to her chest and went over to Rachel. "Was Ariel Kurt's real Mommy before Grandma?" she whispered.

Rachel smiled. "Not exactly." She took the backpack and put it in the shopping cart. "Let's go get some more school supplies."

Ariana darted off to a random display of shoes. "She understands step relations now?" Kurt asked.

"Sort of," said Rachel. "Finn tried to explain to her that Grandpa Christopher is her real grandfather and Grandpa Burt is only her step grandfather, but she wasn't having that. Not that you can blame her considering Grandpa Burt lives with us and plays with her every day and Grandpa Christopher is just a picture in a frame."

"Can I wear these shoes now that I'm a big girl, Mommy?" asked Ariana as she clumsily ambled over to them in pink flats about five sizes too big.

"No, sweetie," said Rachel. "Your feet are still too small."

"Aww," said Ariana as Rachel put the shoes back.

"If you're going to get any new shoes for preschool, they should be sneakers," said Rachel.

"But I wanted to buy some heels!" said Ariana. "Uncle Kurt had heels when _he_ was three!"

"How about sneakers with sparkles on them, huh?" said Kurt, stepping in. "Is that a good compromise?"

Ariana stuck out her lip. "_Maybe_."

Kurt scooped her up and walked off into another aisle that had nothing but rows of children's shoes. Rachel followed.

"These are perfect!" exclaimed Ariana as she slipped her feet into light pink sparkly sneakers with Velcro straps.

"Ari, they're thirty-five dollars," said Rachel. "What about those white ones down there?"

"It's okay," said Kurt. "I'm getting them for her."

Ariana beamed. "Can I pick out a lunchbox now?"

"Of course," said Rachel, patting the three-year-old's head. When Ariana sprinted off in her new shoes, Rachel nudged Kurt. "Thanks. That was nice of you."

Kurt shrugged. "The fact that I might never have kids of my own is all the more reason to enjoy yours, right?"

Rachel took a deep breath. "I want to have your baby."

"_What_?" said Kurt, nearly jumping because he was so startled.

"I mean it," said Rachel. "I want to be a surrogate for you and Blaine. Of course first I'd have to get my tubes untied, and then we'd have to get an egg donor because if I were the biological mother I'd end up being way too much of a control freak, but…I want you to have a baby, Kurt. I want you to experience all the cuddles and moments of joy and sleepless nights that I have and for my children to have a baby cousin and for…"

Kurt yanked Rachel into a hug before she said anything else.

"Is that a yes?" asked Rachel.

"It's a yes-you're-the-most-amazing-sister-in-law-ever," said Kurt. "Blaine and I have actually been looking into adopting, and I'm not sure if it's going to work out with the agency we're going through right now. But if you're sure you're willing to do this, that'll be our backup plan."

"Sounds good," said Rachel.

"Mommy! Uncle Kurt! I found a new dress!" Ariana held up an aqua dress with a white sash.

"What about this one?" asked Rachel, gesturing to the same dress in pink.

Kurt and Rachel both starred at Rachel like she'd lost her mind. "How do you expect her to wear her new sneakers with that?" asked Kurt.

"You can't wear two shades of the same color, Mommy!" said Ariana.

Rachel surpressed an amused smile. "Oh, I see." As her daughter and Finn's daughter, Ariana had every reason to grow up with no fashion sense whatsoever. But as Kurt's niece...

* * *

"Ow, ow, OW! Blaine! Lily! Come help me! He's winning!"

Blaine and Lily rushed into the living room from opposite corners of the house. There was Finn lying on the ground being tackled by Aiden, who had managed to grab a fistful of Finn's not-very-long hair and was pulling it while pressing his left foot into Finn's stomach and giggling uncontrollably. Lily ran over and immediately started tickling Aiden under his arms. The two-year-old released his grip on his father and Finn immediately sat up and flipped him over and started tickling him on the stomach. Blaine joined in after a moment, too.

"'Top it! 'Top it!" shrieked the toddler.

"Okay, okay!" said Finn, Lily and Blaine both stepped back. "Come on, little man," said Finn. "Time for your nap."

"NOOOOO!" screamed Aiden. "Wanna wrestle again!"

"Later, buddy." Finn scooped up the two-year-old and raised his eyebrows in surprise when Aiden started beating him with tiny fists. "Whoa. Maybe there _is _a reason Rachel is always telling me not get him all hyper before naptime."

Blaine giggled nervously as Finn carried the protesting toddler up the stairs. Blaine was going along with Kurt's mildly obsessive plan to start a family because he could tell how important this was to his husband…but the truth was, Blaine didn't really think he'd be any good at this whole parenting thing. Other than Lily he'd never been any good at babysitting any of his nieces and nephews. He'd nearly had a nervous breakdown trying to change his sister's son's diaper once, and the one time he'd ever been left alone with Finn and Rachel's kids for fifteen minutes he'd lost Ariana at the playground and by the time he'd finally found her he had lost Aiden too. And he'd only been able to take care of Lily on his own successfully when she was about five and older. Four-and-a-half at the youngest.

Lily plopped down on the couch next to Blaine. "Will you help me with my homework?"

Blaine smiled. "Sure. What's it about?"

"It's a diversity project," explained Lily. "I'm supposed to make a family tree of everyone in my immediate family, but I can't fit everyone onto one page."

"Let me have a look," said Blaine. He took the paper from her and glanced at it. "Try to make your lines a little smaller. You aren't leaving a lot of room at the left and right."

Lily extracted a blank piece of paper from her pile and started her family tree over. "And flip the paper horizontally," said Blaine.

"Okay," said Lily. "I have to leave room for pictures above their names, though."

"Try starting with the first generation and working your way down, then."

Blaine watched as Lily carefully mapped out her family tree, starting with Carole and Christopher Hudson and Russell and Judy Fabray and working her way down to her parents and herself. Then she factored in Rachel, her half-siblings, and Burt Hummel.

"What was Kurt's mother's name?" asked Lily.

Blaine closed his eyes. "Mollie. Mollie Melrose Hummel." Kurt had told him about fifty times now that he really wanted his daughter's first or middle name to be Mollie. Blaine wondered for a moment what he would be worse at handling, a baby boy or a baby girl. Definitely a boy. Especially if they had a son and he turned out to be the butchiest jock alive. That would never work. Finn and Kurt would have to raise him. Kurt could be the mom and Finn could be the dad. So the kid would have three dads. And one of them would be straight…

"Is it true that you were at the party my mom was drunk at before she died?"

Blaine blinked, jerked back to reality. "_What?_"

Lily had filled in Kurt's mother and her two uncles and was now pasting small headshots of Finn and Quinn above their names. "Daddy said you were there."

"Um…yeah, I was," said Blaine. "I was too drunk by the time she got there to remember much, though."

"Oh," said Lily, obviously disappointed.

"I remember Kurt tried to call a cab for her and she shoved him," said Blaine, gently trying to indulge her. "She was too drunk to think straight."

"Was she mad at him _before_ she got drunk?"

Blaine shifted in his seat and Lily gazed up at him intensely with big green eyes. "Not really," Blaine finally said. "I think she was in a bad mood when she got there."

"Why?" asked Lily.

Blaine absent-mindedly started to bite his left thumbnail. "Um…" How much was Lily _supposed _to know about the night Quinn died? Did she know that Finn and Quinn had been broken up? That they'd just had a fight? That he'd thrown her out of his house?

Blaine glanced down at Lily's family tree. Surely she didn't know who's face she _almost_ would have been putting in the spot next to Quinn's, if things had gone just a bit differently?

"Why are you looking at my family tree?" asked Lily accusingly.

Blaine looked up and shook with a start. "I was just trying to remember," he attempted to say smoothly. "I think she'd just had a fight with your Grandpa Fabray. She stopped to see him on the way there. Not sure exactly what happened." Blaine looked away and bit his lip, afraid that he'd already said too much.

"Oh," said Lily. "You don't know what they were fighting about?" She fidgeted with her hands for a moment and then began cutting out headshots of Burt and Carole.

"Nope," said Blaine. "We didn't talk at the party. She just spent the whole time laying around on the floor and laughing with Rachel and talking nonsense."

"I thought you said you were too drunk to remember," said Lily innocently.

Oh, shit. Blaine bit his lip and starred at the carpet as Lily pasted in pictures of him and Kurt onto her family tree.

"Finally got him to fall asleep," said Finn as he entered the room with an exhausted look on his face. "Thank god. What are you up to?"

"Look at my project," said Lily. She smiled and held up her family tree. There were only two faces missing. "I need a picture of Grandpa Christopher," said Lily.

"We'll ask Grandma for one," said Finn. "I don't have very many."

"Okay," said Lily. "Do you think Kurt would give me a picture of his mom?"

"Absolutely," said Blaine. "Anytime he gets a chance to talk about her it makes his day."

"Blaine, don't you have a rehearsal to go to?" asked Lily.

"Right," said Blaine, he got up quickly. "Later, Finn."

"Later," said Finn. He sat down next to Lily on the couch. "This looks good! Where did you get that photo of me?"

"I asked Rachel for it," said Lily. "I think she said it's from your wedding reception."

Blaine sighed with relief the moment he stepped outside the front door of Finn's house. Seriously, if he couldn't even help his eleven-year-old niece with her homework without screwing something up, how was he supposed to be trusted with a baby of his own?

* * *

On some highway in the middle of the United States, the connection between Puck's large pickup truck and his favorite radio station was going static. He grumbled to himself and reached for the "seek" button. The first clear station he could find was in the middle of playing a song he'd never heard.

_Hate the mind, regrets are better left unspoken  
For all we know, this void will grow  
And everything's in vain, distressing you won't leave me open  
Feels so right, but I'll end this all before it gets me_

_Some words are better left unspoken._ That was what Finn had said to Puck during that fateful conversation.

"Do you think…that she'll ever know that I'm her birth father?"

"I don't think so. Some words are better left unspoken."

_Call your name every day, when I feel so helpless  
I'm falling down, but I'll rise above this, rise above this  
Call your name every day when I seem so helpless  
I'm falling down, but I'll rise above this, rise above this doubt_

Puck stepped on the gas and left the central time zone behind. Hell yeah he was going to rise above this.

* * *

**A/N: YAAAAY Kurt and Blaine are gonna have a baby! But do you guys think it should be adopted or that Rachel should be their surrogate? And should it be a boy or a girl? I have an idea of the direction I'm taking that storyline in but I'm open to suggestions. Also, for the full story of Baby Kurt Goes To Disney World And Meets Ariel, read chapter 112 of Tumbled by Keitorin Asthore. YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT. There's also the story in there about Blaine failing to babysit his nephew.**


	3. Plans

Burt was sitting on the couch with a blanket over his legs, casually clicking through the channels on their large flatscreen TV looking for a sports channel. Finn was finishing up work in the office, and Rachel and Carole were upstairs putting all the kids to bed, which was apparently taking extra long because Lily was resisting bedtime in favor of obsessing over Finn's senior year yearbook some more and Ariana was starting preschool the next day and too excited to sleep.

Carole entered the room and sat down next to Burt on the couch. "The little ones are finally in bed," she said, pulling part of the blanket over her own knees. "And Rachel and Lily have just about reached a compromise. What are you watching?"

"Not sure yet," said Burt. "I can't find a game. Why are so many sitcoms and dramas on at this hour?"

Carole shrugged. "I guess they figure that women watch TV too."

"Wait," said Burt. "What's this?"

A shiny red logo eased onto the screen as an unseen announcer exclaimed, "And now, back to Sue's Corner!"

The logo rotated on the screen and revealed Sue Sylvester, who was sitting in a hideously large gold chair on a stage surrounded by trophies. "Welcome back, everyone. As I was saying before my last commercial break, my experience as a high school cheerleading coach taught me a lot of things. First of all, it taught me that winning is _everything_. It's not about how you play the game, it's all about whether you win or lose. It ultimately doesn't matter what you had to take or who you had to blackmail to get there. Second of all, it taught me that wearing anything but track suits is for sissies. And most importantly of all, it has taught me that anything high school teaches you about social structure is ultimately _completely pointless_. Take the time that I was a cheerleading coach at William McKinley High for instance. I had five different head cheerleaders during that time. Number one: Quinn Fabray." A picture of Quinn in her cheerleading uniform went up on a huge screen behind Sue. "Less than three months after she became captain of the Cheerios, she became pregnant with the quarterback's child and couldn't convince anyone to adopt it. It took a full eight months after the birth of her child for her to get her grades up to where they were before and finally start to show promise again. Right before her fatal car accident. Number two: Santana Lopez." A picture of Santana went up on the screen. "a.k.a. Sandbags. Had a successful cheerleading career all throughout high school. And college. And then she moved back home to Lamo, Ohio to coach the very same cheerleading team I coached her on and _never did anything else._ Number three: Brittany Pierce. Repeated her senior year twice before finally graduating by a thread with a special ed diploma and then getting a permanent dead-end job because keeping up with her cat's Ponzi schemes was taking up too much of her time for her to go to college. Number four: Becky Jackson. Now Becky…_she_ showed promise. Girl from my own heart. But then one day, she decided to give up on her ambition to conquer the world and succumbed to the pathetic life of a kind and compassionate human being. She now works at an animal shelter. And last but not least, number five: Kitty Tatterton, a very successful cheerleader who won me the national title two years in a row before dropping out of school in the last month of her senior year and turning to stripping for a living.

"On the other hand, I was also an assistant director for William McKinley High's Glee Club for a while," Sue continued. "This Glee Club was composed of social scum, outcasts and misfits who could count on getting a slushie to the face on a daily basis. Let's take a look at where some of these kids are now. Rachel Barbra Berry." Instead of a still shot, footage of her singing appeared in the background. "This young up-and-coming singer has already starred on Broadway as well as in several movies along with her best gay, Porcelain." Footage of Kurt and Rachel acting together in a scene in a mob movie flashed briefly across the screen. "Mercedes Jones: has already landed her fifth record contract and her third guest appearance in a major hit movie. And my personal favorite: Sunshine Corazon, who most people refer to as the next Adele, probably because she wastes her God-given talent singing nothing but depressing breakup ballads."

The camera zoomed on Sue's face. "So, to all you high school kids out there who think that just because you're popular and have a lot of friends now you have a shred of hope of having an actual successful life, think again. The fact is, you are probably going to grow up to be a loser, a stripper, or dead, and the kid who you just made fun of for having a big nose is probably the next Barbra Streissand. Or at least your future boss. So if I were you, I'd start sucking up to them now, because in ten years, they will have the power to dock your paycheck. _Permanently._ And that's how Sue…C's it."

"This is _not_ happening," mumbled Burt.

"At least she's come a long way from the psycho who ran for congress just so she could cut funding for Glee clubs everywhere," said Carole.

"I'm kind of impressed that she turned out so successful," said Burt. "Maybe parenthood has mellowed her out enough for her to be…well, human."

"How old is her daughter now?" asked Carole.

"Nine," said Burt.

"You will _never_ guess what just happened!" said Finn as he walked into the room.

"Sue Sylvester got her own talk show," said Burt.

"You saw it too?" said Finn.

"I thought you were working," Carole half-scolded.

"I was," said Finn. "I just like the TV on when I work sometimes."

"Finn!" called Rachel. "I need your help!"

"Coming!" called Finn. He left smiling, probably figuring she was calling him to bed when really she needed his help convincing Lily that bedtime was important.

Carole glanced up when Burt reached over and squeezed her hand. "Time for bed, Mrs. Hummel."

* * *

The next day, Rachel, Blaine, and Kurt were all sitting down on the couch in Kurt and Blaine's living room with an open laptop. Artie and Tina were on the screen holding up a picture of a tiny Asian girl. "They gave us this picture of her when she was two weeks old," said Tina. "I can't believe this is really happening. In just three weeks, we'll be able to fly out to China and get our baby!"

Rachel and Kurt leaned on closer to get a glimpse of the cuteness. "What's her name?" asked Kurt.

"Anna Carly Abrams," said Artie proudly. "And she's all ours!"

"How is your adoption process going?" asked Tina, sweetly setting the photograph aside and looking at Kurt and Blaine.

Kurt sighed. "It's not. We dropped off our application at twelve adoption agencies over the last couple of years and nobody has called us."

"Oh," said Artie. "That's stupid. You'd be great dads!"

Blaine fidgeted nervously in his seat. No one noticed.

"Although, we never have tried looking into international adoption before," said Kurt, suddenly perking up. "How does that work?"

"It's _really _hard," Tina admitted. "China was the only country we could find that didn't have a waiting list over a year long, and it's been sad for the last six months knowing our daughter is out there somewhere and not being allowed to be with her. Plus, in most countries that offer their children up for adoption, the children who are given up are very ill or have mental health problems. Some of them don't make it."

"We also considered becoming foster parents and trying to adopt older kids that way, but we've heard that can be heartbreaking when it goes wrong," Artie admitted. "My brother and his wife tried to adopt five year old twins through the foster care system, completely fell in love with them, and then at the last minute their birthmother decided she wanted them back."

"We're not trying to discourage you or anything," said Tina, giving Artie a stern look when she noticed Kurt's sad eyes. "I'm sure there's a baby out there for you guys somewhere."

"But it _might_ be a good idea to wait until you've at least adopted one healthy infant before trying for anything more complicated," said Artie. "We know how heartbreaking the process can be."

Kurt bit the inside of his lip, leaning more towards asking Rachel to be their surrogate by the second.

"I hate to cut this short, but we dinner with Artie's parents in half an hour," said Tina.

"Oh, no problem," said Blaine quickly.

"Yeah," said Rachel. "Talk to you soon."

The Skype call ended and Rachel wordlessly pulled Kurt and Blaine into a hug.

"Blaine?" said Kurt. "Maybe you should call your sister later tonight and ask her about the risks of having a child through surrogacy."

"Um…okay," Blaine half-stammered.

"Did she hire a surrogate to have her kid?" asked Rachel.

"No, but she's a doctor," explained Kurt. "She might know something."

"Oh, crap," mumbled Rachel, suddenly noticing the time. "I just realized I'm late for dinner."

"Okay, go on home then," said Kurt, squeezing her hand.

"Let me know what happens!" Rachel rushed out the door.

In ten minutes time, Rachel was back at home rushing into the door where everyone else was already in the dining room. "Sorry I'm late!" she said.

"Where were you?" asked Finn.

"I WENT TO PRESCHOOL TODAY, MOMMY!" screamed Ariana.

"Grandma and I drew you a picture!" said Aiden.

Lily half hopped up from the table. "I taught Star a trick, wanna see?"

"One at a time!" said Rachel, gesturing for Lily to sit back down. Rachel sat down at the table in her seat between Finn and Aiden's booster chair. "I was at Kurt's house going over some stuff. Ariana, how was preschool?"

"It was _cool_!" chirped Ariana. "They have a whole playroom full of toys, and we got to play games outside and do a puppet show and watch a movie and sing songs." Ariana paused for a split second and frowned. "But there's a big girl who's scary and annoying and _really _loud!"

"That's the teacher," said Lily. Finn gave her a look.

"_No_," said Ariana. "The teacher's nice. Her name is Miss Natalie."

"Mommy!" yelled Aiden. "I wanna show you my picture."

"We can show mommy our picture _after_ we eat dinner," said Carole, stroking the little boy's hair.

"Now my turn!" said Lily. "Star, sing!"

The puppy let out a drawn-out howl, causing everyone at the table to laugh.

Half an hour later, Rachel was in her bedroom putting Aiden's drawing for her up on her vanity mirror next to some pictures of her family. Finn walked in and kissed her on top of the head. "How was work?"

"It was…same old same old," said Rachel.

"I should go finish up an agreement I was drafting," said Finn. "There's this guy who wants to open up a Burt's Tire Shop in Oklahoma, seems really bizarre considering none of our other locations are anywhere near there, but if it works out this could help us expand." By "us" he mostly meant himself. Burt was just the name and the face of the business. He had legally transferred ownership of the franchise to Finn years ago.

"Finn," said Rachel, standing up quickly. "There's something I should tell you."

"What?" asked Finn, already getting the feeling that he might not like what he was about to hear from the nervous look on her face.

"Kurt and Blaine are reconsidering whether or not they want to adopt a baby," said Rachel. "They might have one through a surrogate instead."

"Oh. Cool." Finn didn't realize what was so serious about that.

"They've already found a surrogate."

"Oh?"

"Yeah," said Rachel. "Me."

"_What?"_ snapped Finn.

"Isn't this great?" squealed Rachel.

"_No!_" said Finn. "Rachel, how could you do this without even asking me first?"

"I don't need to _ask_ you," snapped Rachel. "You don't own my body."

"But _you're my wife_!" Finn half-yelled. "You tell me you're done having my kids and then you go ahead and decide to have my _brother's_?"

"It's not going to be my _biological_ child," Rachel assured him. "I'm just the oven. Finn, why are you not happy about this? I thought you _wanted_ them to have a family."

"I do, but not like _this_!" yelled Finn. "How could you put them before our children?"

"How does this affect our children?" asked Rachel. "We can explain to Lily what's going on, and I'll tell the little ones that Kurt and Blaine couldn't grow their baby in their tummy because they're both boys so I let them plant a seed in mine."

Finn's jaw tightened. "They already have one married set of uncles and one married set of grandfather's."

"So?" said Rachel.

"So, their family tree is already complicated enough!"

"How is this complicated?" said Rachel. "Finn, it won't even really be _mine_! Do you have _any_ idea how lucky you are? You had_ three_ kids without even having to think about trying. They have spent the last two years of their lives not thinking about anything else and they still have _nothing_."

"So just because you feel sorry for them you don't even care how this affects me!"

"This _doesn't_ affect you!"

"You just don't understand!"

Finn stormed out and slammed the door behind him. Clueless Burt and Carole did not notice when Finn slept on the couch in his den that night.

* * *

The packing knife sliced through the lid of Puck's last moving box. Every other box was unpacked. But he wasn't going to unpack this one. It was full of photographs, framed and unframed, that he hadn't wanted to leave behind but that he didn't want anyone who entered his loft to be able to ask about, either.

Not knowing how he was going to go about his plan yet, he wanted the neighbors to know as little about him as possible for now.


	4. Happening

Finn opened his eyes. It took him a moment to realize that he was in his den. Then he remembered why he wasn't in bed with Rachel, and the angry feelings rushed back instantaneously.

Finn sat up and glanced at his desk. He had five framed photographs lining it: his and Rachel's wedding photo, Kurt and Blaine's wedding photo, and individual photos of each of his children.

Did he want Kurt and Blaine to have the opportunity to start a family together? Of course.

But his wife's uterus was _not _their property.

Finn heard a tiny fist banging on the door and went to open it, suddenly realizing that it was almost eight thirty. He must have overslept without Rachel there to wake him up with the rattle of her pedaling away on the elliptical.

"Daddy!" squealed Aiden when Finn opened the door.

"Hey, buddy," said Finn, scooping up the toddler. "Where are your sisters?"

"School. Gwandma told me to come get you."

Finn glanced around and saw Carole stepping downstairs. "Finn, I need to go to the store. Burt went to the tire shop to play with the cars and Rachel's already left with the girls. Can you watch Aiden or should I bring him?"

"He can stay here," said Finn, honestly happy for a non work-related distraction.

Carole grabbed her keys. "Anything you need?"

_Other than for my wife not to cheat on me with my gay brother?_ Thought Finn.

"Hamburger meat," said Finn. "And hamburger buns. And cheese. And catsup. Actually, could you just stop by McDonalds?"

Carole smiled. "Sure." She sensed that her son was feeling stressed about something. Probably something work related.

"Hey Daddy, wanna pway candywand?"

"Sure," said Finn. He set Aiden down on the ground, and the two-year-old immediately bolted into the living room. Finn saw that there were already several toys out on the floor and the TV was on playing some cartoon with hopping frogs.

"Gwandma says toys away by wunchtime. Don't wike dat. Star go in backyard on da weash not too long or she hot. Sissy said. Movie wong. Our ceiling isn't white enough. Okay now, you be gingerbwead man and I be the gummy man, okay?"

Finn smiled. He'd had enough children now to be able to appreciate the cute nonsense baby talk for what it was.

Then he remembered that while this was _his _youngest child, it wouldn't be Rachel's.

He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket, clicked on the "messaging" button by Kurt's number, and typed in,

**Just because Rachel is done having MY children does not make her uterus your property. Find your OWN**

And then he stopped and decided to delete the whole thing. Sending it would just make everything worse.

"Daddy?" said Aiden. "Wets pway now, pwease?

Finn smiled. "Sure."

He liked to think that this was one of the signs that he was a good father: that he could feel more violated than he ever had in his life and still put that aside long enough to play a game with his tiny son.

* * *

Rachel was done with a rehearsal and a recording session with Kurt early enough to be able to pick up Lily and Ariana from school. Ariana still beamed with pride every time she was going to or from preschool or even wearing her backpack and chattered about what she did there constantly.

"Today we played ring around the rosie and tag and hula hoops and sing songs and did other stuff," Ariana chattered. "And the big girl is still scary."

"Whatever," mumbled Lily. Rachel suddenly realized she was sulking in the seat next to her.

"It's true!" said Ariana. "She's…she's _huge!_"

"How old is she?" asked Rachel.

"Four," said Ariana. "Most of us are just three."

"Sweetie, she's only a year older than you," said Rachel. "She can't be _that_ big or scary."

"Uh-huh," said Ariana.

"We looked at our family tree projects in school today," said Lily quietly. "Everybody but Hayley and Robbie made fun of mine. Even the teacher."

"Why?" said Rachel. She genuinely thought that Lily had done a lovely job on her project.

Lily glanced out the window as if that would keep Rachel from noticing there were tears streaming down her cheeks.

"Was…was it because _I'm _on it?" asked Rachel. "Because you have a stepmother?"

"No," said Lily. "Because Blaine and Kurt were on it."

"_Oh,_" said Rachel, suddenly feeling very angry. "The teacher seriously didn't do anything about it?"

"I tried to get his attention when this one girl started calling my project a fag tree and he just laughed at it and shook his head," said Lily. "I don't understand. Dad married a girl, Kurt married a boy. What's the difference?"

"Nothing," said Rachel. "The only difference is how people look at it."

"That's not right," said Lily.

"What grade did you get on it?" asked Rachel."

"A minus," said Lily.

"Good," said Rachel. "I'll buy a frame for that so that we can put it up somewhere in your room, okay? It's perfect the way it is."

Lily sniffed. "Okay."

Rachel brought the girls into the house and Lily left immediately to walk Star. Rachel looked around for Finn but saw only Burt watching a football game on the couch with Aiden curled up in his lap.

"Where's Finn?"

Burt glanced up. "Hey, Rachel. He left to go pick up some groceries Carole forgot earlier. He left just as you were getting in."

_What a coincidence_, thought Rachel sarcastically.

"Hi, Aiden!" Ariana bounded into the livingroom. She glanced at the TV. "Whatcha watching?"

"Football," said Aiden. "Guy thing."

Burt and Rachel exchanged amused glances.

"I guess I should go help Carole with dinner."

As Rachel left, Ariana sat down on the couch next to Burt and Aiden. "Can we watch Cinderella instea-"

"No!" said Burt and Aiden in unison.

Ariana stuck out her lower lip and left to go find something else to play with. Burt almost felt bad for a second, but he had suffered through more than his fair share of Disney Princess movies when Kurt was this age.

* * *

Blaine let out a slow shaky breath and pulled out his cell phone. Kurt was at a late rehearsal, thank god. He glanced around one last time to make sure nobody else was around. Then he unlocked the phone and speed-dialed his sister.

The link picked up after less than ten seconds, but Blaine didn't hear anything.

"Hello? Francey?"

"EEEEEEK!"

Blaine sighed. "Zachary, can you please give Mommy the phone?"

"WOOOOAAH! NOMNOM YAY!"

"I _mean_ it, Zachary!" said Blaine weakly. Good god, he wasn't even good at dealing with a baby over the _phone._

"Hey, Zachary? What are you doing with my phone?"

Blaine sighed with relief at the sound of his sister's voice.

"UNKA BABBIE!" shrieked Zachary right into Blaine's ear.

"Did you call him, Zachary?" asked Francey.

"No, _I_ was trying to call you!" Blaine half-yelled. "And quit teaching him to call me Uncle Babbie. Only _you're_ allowed to call me Babbie."

"Sorry about that," said Francey, taking the phone from her son and mostly ignoring everything Blaine had just said. "I have no fucking idea how that kid figured out how to open my purse and turn my phone on. He gets into _every_-ZACHARY HARRISON FORD, PUT DOWN THAT TOASTER RIGHT THIS INSTANT AND GET DOWN OFF THE COUNTER! Honestly, what the hell was going through my head when I taught this child how to walk?"

Blaine groaned inwardly. This was _not _making him feel any better about the whole parenting thing.

"Anyways…what's up?"

Blaine sighed. "Kurt and I have kind of given up on the whole adoption thing but Rachel has volunteered to be our surrogate. And Kurt thought I should see if you have any advice. You know, since you're a doctor."

There was a brief pause. "And you don't sound very enthusiastic about it," said Francey. Blaine didn't say anything. "Why? I thought you'd been looking forward to starting a family of your own ever since you were a little boy sneaking into my room to play with my dollhouse when you thought I wasn't looking."

"You knew about that?"

"Of course I did. Mom wouldn't let me kick you out because she thought you were so cute. Anyway…have you decided you don't want a baby after all?"

"I really do want it," Blaine admitted. "I just don't think I could ever be good at it. I can't even babysit Zachary."

"Of _course_ you would," Francey insisted. "Hell, some days even I feel like I can't babysit Zachary, don't worry about that. It'll be completely different when you're the Daddy."

"How am I supposed to know how to be a Daddy? I don't even know what it's like to have a Daddy. We never had a _Daddy_, we had a _father_!" Blaine paused and bit his lip when he realized he sounded panicky.

Francey took a deep breath. She knew exactly what Blaine was talking about, of course. Their father had been so formal and distant there had been times when they'd barely been able to tell he loved them. "Daddy, I made a sand sculpture!" "That's great, go find your mother." "Daddy, I fell down and skinned my knee." "That's great, go find your mother." "Daddy, I'm gay." "That's great, go find your mother."

"You're not going to be the kind of father we had, Babbie," said Francey. "I promise. You're so much more friendly and open and caring and…you're just nothing like him, okay? If anything this gives you an advantage. You already know what kind of parent you _don't _want to be."

Suddenly Blaine felt calmer. He wasn't sure if his sister was just saying all that to be nice (which he doubted, flattery wasn't exactly her thing) or what he thought of it, but one thing was for sure: he knew what kind of parent he _didn't_ want to be, and wasn't going to let himself turn into.

"Zachary! Get your crayons out of the microwave _right now_!"

Blaine burst out laughing. How happy and relieved his laugh sounded told his sister he was okay.

"So, about this whole surrogacy thing…you'd better hope Kurt doesn't end up being the biological father, because Kurt and Rachel's child would be the diva to end all divas."

"Actually, Rachel doesn't want to be the mother," said Blaine. "Just the surrogate. Do you know what risks there could be to having an unrelated egg donor?"

Francey was quiet for a moment. "I'm not sure. That's not exactly my area. I know a friend of Brantley's who's had a few patients go through in vitro fertilization. I could ask him."

"Thanks," said Blaine.

"Or you could do the most obvious thing," said Francey. "Which is find a woman who shares 100% of your genetic material, ask _her _to be the biological mother, and have Kurt be the biological father. That way, the baby will have genetic ties to both of you."

"That could wo-hey, wait a second. You just offered to be our egg donor."

"No shit."

"Are you _sure_?" said Blaine.

"Only if you're sure you're up for this."

Blaine took a deep breath. "As sure as I'll ever be."

"We'll talk about this more later," said Francey. "Right now I have to go. I promised Brantley a little alone time after work tonight. Love you, Babbie."

"Love you too."

The second Blaine hung up the phone, he felt an unanticipated rush of fear and excitement.

This was really happening. He and Kurt were having a baby.

* * *

_Finn and Rachel Hudson  
189 Broadway Avenue  
Brooklyn, NY_

Puck had had their address in his hand for months now. Not that it did him any good whatsoever. It wasn't like he could just…go there. Not without knowing what he was doing first.

What he needed was a plan. An _in._ And he was still working on that

* * *

**A/N: The characters of Francey, Brantley, and Zachary Ford are owned by Keitorin Asthore and I could not be more honored that she's letting me borrow them because this story is turning out a million times better than it would without them and being able to reference her headcanon. I LOVE YOU CAITLIN YOU ARE A ****PRINCESS****!**


	5. But It's Complicated

At a lovely outdoor café in Manhattan, Rachel sat down across from Shelby as she nervously took a sip of hot coffee.

"So, you're going to be their child's…birthmother?" Shelby inquired.

"Not really," said Rachel.

"You need to understand that whether the child is legally or biologically yours or not, if you give birth to this baby, you are _always_ going to think of it as being a little bit yours," said Shelby. "You're talking about carrying another human being in your womb for nine months and then handing it off to someone else. Do you really think you can handle that?"

"I know I can," said Rachel. "It's not like I don't know where it's going or who it's going to."

"Are you sure that that won't just make it _more_ difficult?" asked Shelby.

"Yes, completely," said Rachel. "This isn't my baby. I'm not having it for me."

Shelby starred long and hard at Rachel as she took a slow sip of her tea. "Well then." She set the cup down. "I'm assuming that without you being the mother this is going to be a little more…_complicated_ than it was for me?"

"Yes," said Rachel. "Blaine's sister is coming here next week, we'll both go through health examinations, and if all goes well, then we'll both have surgery."

"I hope all goes well," said Shelby. "Call me if you need anything."

"Thanks," said Rachel. "I should get home. I already had to have my mother-in-law pick up the girls from school."

There was no turning back now. Rachel could never crush Kurt and Blaine's dreams after getting their hopes up so high, even Finn knew that. But she couldn't help but be a little…well, scared of how he was going to react now that this was definitely absolutely happening. Kurt was planning on having a special dinner to tell Burt and Carole the news and he and Blaine didn't want to tell the rest of their friends until Rachel was definitely pregnant. But Rachel knew she had to tell Finn herself.

"Hey, Rachel?"

Rachel was slightly shocked when Finn greeted her practically at the door after not speaking to her at all for a few days.

"Do you have any idea who Jackie is?" asked Finn.

"Who?"

"This girl from preschool who Ariana has been complaining about nonstop," said Finn.

"Probably the kid she's apparently afraid of who's a bit bigger that her," Rachel explained. "Um…" she glanced around to make sure no one else was around. "Kurt and Blaine found an egg donor."

Finn's face took on an unreadable expression. He didn't move.

"She's coming next week," said Rachel.

"So next week you'll be pregnant with another man's child," said Finn.

"Stop making it sound like this is somehow cheating," said Rachel.

"It _is!_" snapped Finn. "For the next nine months,_ I'm_ going to have to sleep in the same bed as my wife with something growing inside her that isn't mine."

"And not mine either!"

"And what if you have another difficult pregnancy like you did with Aiden, huh? What if you have to spend another two months rotting away in a hospital bed away from me, away from _our kids_? Who's going to take care of _them_?"

Rachel's eyes suddenly snapped into a mean little glare Finn had never seen before. "Do you _really_ think that Burt and Carole would mind helping out with the babies again if it could mean Kurt having a child too? Or that Kurt and Blaine themselves wouldn't help out…or that in ten years our kids wouldn't look back on it and know that it was worth it for me to spend a couple of months on bedrest for them to have a cousin? I love you, Finn, but I just can't believe that...that the only person you've been able to think about in this entire situation is yourself!"

Rachel walked away without even looking at her husband. Finn vaguely heard her walking up the stairs and then saying something to one of their kids. Then he shook his head and shut himself back up in the den for the rest of the day and the night.

* * *

"Have a good day, Lily!" called Rachel as she rolled up her car window and drove out of the middle school parking lot.

"Mommy," said Ariana. "I wanna go to a new preschool today."

"Why, honey?" asked Rachel.

"Because of Jackie," said Ariana. "She's too scary, Mommy!"

"Ari, she's just a four-year-old," said Rachel. "I know that seems big to you because you're only three, but it's really not that different."

"Uh-huh," said Ariana.

Rachel didn't say anything. Ariana glanced out the window and started humming to herself. "Streetlights, people, living just to find emotion…"

Rachel smiled proudly for a moment. That was her little girl, practically singing better than she could talk.

"Mommy, NO!" yelled Ariana suddenly. "This is the road to that _old _preschool!"

"Don't be silly," said Rachel. "You're not going to transfer preschools just because you don't like one of your classmates."

"Jackie doesn't like me either!" Ariana practically shrieked.

Rachel wordlessly pulled into the parking lot to Ariana's preschool. "Ariana, time to get out!" said Rachel.

"NO!"

"RIGHT NOW, young lady!"

Ariana folded her arms stubbornly. "Only if you come with me!"

"_Fine_," Rachel relented. She got out of the car, opened Ariana's door, and unbuckled her seatbelt. Ariana threw herself into Rachel's arms and clung onto her neck as tightly as possible. "Don't you wanna walk like a big girl?" Ariana squeezed onto her mother tighter and shook her head.

Confused, Rachel walked across the parking lot and over to a fenced area where all the children seemed to be playing on toddler sized playground equipment. "Do you want to show me which one Jackie is?"

Ariana looked up from Rachel's shoulder long enough to glance around the playground, point to a girl standing under the yard's single tree, and look back down.

Rachel looked more closely at the girl Ariana had pointed to. At first glance, she knew that the reason Ariana had called her "big" had absolutely nothing to do with her age. Between the fact that she was two inches taller than Ariana and the amount of sheer bulk this girl had to her body, she was easily over half again Ariana's size. Rachel stepped closer to the fence and saw that Jackie was repeatedly hurling stones at the tree. Jackie stopped what she was doing and burst out laughing the instant two terrified birds took flight from the lowest branch.

Jackie looked around the playground and suddenly noticed Rachel and Ariana on the outside. Jackie flashed them an arrogant grin. "Good morning _stupid_."

Rachel tightened her arms around Ariana protectively. "Hey! Don't you talk to my daughter like that!"

"I wasn't," said Jackie. Rachel's mouth slowly fell open. Jackie looked away from them when she suddenly noticed a boy walking towards her carrying a lunchbox. Jackie ran over to the boy, shoved him face first into the dirt, and yelled, "YOU! HAND OVER YOUR COOKIES OR DIE!"

"Unbelievable," muttered Rachel. Ariana looked up at her with a somber smirk.

Rachel turned and walked through the entrance. She saw a tiny well-groomed blonde woman sitting at a desk.

"Are you Miss Natalie?" asked Rachel. "I'm Ariana's mother."

The teacher practically jumped up. "Oh! Hi, Mrs. Hudson! I've heard so much about you! I saw you in your brother-in-law in a movie once. You were stunning."

"Thank you," said Rachel, her lips tight. "Actually, I'm here because my daughter was afraid to go to preschool today."

"Oh," Miss Natalie looked down at Ariana with concerned blue eyes. "Why is that, dear?"

"_Jackie_," said Ariana flatly. "She won't let me do _anything_. Every time I try to go on the swing or the slide she pushes me off or gets in the way, and she's too big for me to get past."

"I'm so sorry, dear," said Miss Natalie. She turned her head around. "Miss Brenda! I need you to call Jackie's father and tell him he needs to come down here…_immediately, _if possible!"

"Yesterday I tried making you a drawing during art and Jackie threw it out the window," said Ariana. "And in circle time she sat in front of me so she couldn't see anything and she just _always _tries not to let me do anything."

Rachel suddenly felt horrible that she hadn't heard anything about this before. "I also saw Jackie pushing kids around outside on the playground."

"Jackie, get in here!" bellowed Miss Natalie. Jackie appeared in the doorway. "Sit down in the corner over there and don't come out until I tell you it's okay! Ariana, why don't you go outside and play now? Jackie is in time out."

Ariana grinned. "Okay!" She wriggled out of Rachel's arms and Rachel set her down.

Miss Natalie turned to Rachel and clasped her hands together. "I'm _so sorry _about this Mrs. Hudson. This isn't the first incident we've had with Jackie in the past few days. Her parents aren't exactly…" she fidgeted with her hands and gave an awkward smile. "…_high-quality_ people. I tried telling her father that she would have a hard time fitting in at such a high-end institution, but he wouldn't hear any of it. Only the best for his little girl, he says. He wouldn't take no for an answer and took it upon himself to make it worth my while to give her a chance. Although if this behavior keeps up, that chance isn't going to last much longer."

Rachel just nodded blankly, smiling when she noticed that Ariana was how happily playing in the sandbox building a sandcastle with the boy Jackie had tackled to the ground a few minutes ago.

"There's Jackie's father now," said Miss Natalie.

Rachel turned around to glance at him. Then she froze.

When he noticed her, he froze too. Actually, he looked a little frightened.

"Rachel?"

Her face turned pale. "_Puck_?"

"Oh, you know each other?" said Miss Natalie. Then she muttered, "Guess he cleans her pool or something."

Puck tore his panicked gaze away from Rachel. "Jackie Daniels Puckerman, you get over here this instant!"

Jackie leapt up out of the chair and bolted over to Puck. "Daddy!" she yelled. "You came!"

Puck scooped the plump little girl up in his arms. "We should go home for the rest of the day." He turned to the teacher. "We're going to have a long talk later. This won't happen again. I promise."

"It better not," said Miss Natalie warningly.

"Noah, wait!" said Rachel. "What are you doing here?"

"This is my daughter," said Puck.

"Yeah, I got that," said Rachel. "It explains a _lot_. I mean what are you doing _in New York?_"

"We're only staying for a few months," said Puck. "Expanding the pool cleaning business. Don't tell Finn I was here, okay? I don't want him to have to think about…you know."

"Fine," said Rachel reluctantly. Mostly because Finn was upset enough already at the moment. "But for your information, your daughter has been so horrible here that _my _daughter wanted to drop out of preschool."

"I'm really sorry," said Puck, looking genuinely apologetic. "Jackie's just having a hard time adjusting after the move. I'll make sure she knows to be nice to the other kids from now on. Especially yours."

"Thank you," said Rachel.

"No problem," said Puck. He turned to leave, then hesitated. "What's your daughter's name?"

"Ariana," said Rachel. "The little brunette in the red sweater with the braid."

Puck nodded. "Have a good day."

* * *

"_Yeah, life is beautiful  
__Our hearts, they beat and break  
When you run away from harm  
__Will you run back into my arms  
__Like you did when you were young?  
__Will you come back to me?  
I will hold you tightly  
__When the hurting kicks in…_"

Puck clicked off the TV that was playing an old video of the New Directions 2012 performance at Regionals, where the whole Glee Club had sang Life Is Beautiful by Vega 4. What kind of a title was that for a deep song?

Life was _not_ beautiful. Or at least it hadn't been beautiful to him.

Life was what had let Lily disappear from his life before he even had the chance to know her.

Life was what had gotten Quinn into the car crash that night.

Life was what had given him parents that didn't care.

Life was what had let cancer consume his oldest son, Joshua, who had lost his fragile hold on life weeks after he and Lauren brought Jackie home from the hospital.

Life was what had allowed himself and Lauren to heal together, and to get pregnant again with another son, giving them hope for the future at last; only to let the gym at the Los Angels YWCA catch fire, leaving her caught in the blaze three months away from her due date. Life had let her die five minutes before Puck had arrived at the hospital. In a desperate effort to save the baby, doctors had attempted to deliver him on the spot. But too much smoke from the fire had already reached his fragile lungs. He lived less than two minutes.

There was nothing that Puck had been able to do to please his parents. There was nothing he had been able to do to save Lauren. There was nothing that he had been able to do to save his sons. But there was one person who's life had been stolen from him that he had a chance of getting back.

"Puckerette, come over here for a second."

Jackie wandered reluctantly over to the couch her father was sitting on. "Am I in trouble?"

"No," said Puck, lifting her plump little body up onto his lap. "But I do need you to start being nice to the other kids in preschool, okay? Start making friends."

"But I like the friends that I had at my _old_ preschool," whined Jackie. "Why can't I go back there? New York is cold _all the time_ and loud and full of noise and creepy people and I hate it."

"Jackie D, I promise, we _are_ going back to California," said Puck gently, caressing the girl's chubby knee. "But not yet. There's something here of ours that was stolen a long time ago. We have to get it before we can go home."

"Okay," Jackie mumbled, reluctantly nodding.

Puck smoothed her long dark hair. "You have to help me get it back, though."

"How?"

"You have to be nice to everyone at preschool," said Puck. "You have to be nice to the teachers, do what they say, and play with the other kids. That will help us get back to California faster."

"Okay," Jackie mumbled again, more in agreement this time.

"You especially need to make friends with Ariana Hudson," said Puck. "It'll be very hard after the fights you've already had, so you'll have to be _really_ nice to her from now on. Start sharing your cookies with her at lunch. Maybe even tell her you're sorry and bring her a stuffed animal."

Jackie frowned. "Not the ones Mommy bought me."

"Of course not," Puck assured her. "We'll buy one."

"Sure," said Jackie. "But why is Ariana so important?"

"Because," Puck patted her head. "There's something I'm going to need you to tell her for me. When you've gotten to know her better."

_Will you run back into my arms  
__Like you did when you were young?  
__Will you come back to me?  
I will hold you tightly_


	6. Goodbye To Turning Tables

Somewhere in the heart of Manhattan, New York, Sunshine Corazon was sitting at a piano warming up her voice as attendants scurried around her trying to make sure that the stage lighting and break room conditions met her needs.

A spiky haired stage manager walked over with a clipboard. "How should we introduce you, Ms. Corazon?"

"I don't go by my last name anymore," Sunshine snapped. "It's _just _Sunshine."

The stage manager gave her a thumbs-up and walked back around to the stage.

Sunshine shook her head and rolled her eyes.

When she finished warming up, she took a moment to look at herself in the mirror. There she was: Sunshine. The greatest singer in the world. Everyone from the ages of thirteen to ninety knew she had a talent from god. Even Mike Chang. _Especially_ Mike Chang.

"Are you ready Ms…" Sunshine shot the state manager a dirty look. "_Sunshine_."

"In one moment," said Sunshine coldly. "I have to fix my lip gloss."

The stage manager smiled. "No problem."

Sunshine pulled out her clear lip gloss tube and reapplied it, then took another moment to make sure that every sequin on her blue and silver dress was in place. Then she nodded to the stage manager. "Ready."

"And please welcome to the stage, _Sunshine_!"

Light splashed the young singer's face as she took the stage, paying little attention to the deafening applause. She removed the microphone from the stand and announced that she was going to be singing an old song originally written by her very good friend, Adele. She paused for a moment before signaling for the orchestra to begin playing.

"_Close enough to start a war  
All that I have  
Is on the floor  
God only knows what we're fighting for  
Whatever I say  
You always say more  
I can't keep up  
With your turning tables  
Under your thumb I can't breathe  
So I won't let you  
Close enough to hurt me  
No, I won't rescue  
You to just desert me  
__I won't give you  
What you think you gave me  
It's time to say goodbye  
To turning tables"_

* * *

In Lima, Ohio, a world so different from the one Sunshine was living in now she could hardly believe she'd ever even been there, a high school principal's wife was tucking her twins into bed.

"And then Cinderella and Prince Charming lived happily ever after." Emma smiled and set the book she'd been reading aside. "Goodnight."

"Wait," her five year-old son frowned. "What do you mean they lived happily ever after?"

Emma stood up and moved to turn off the light. "I mean, they got married and moved into the castle."

"And then what?" asked her five-year-old daughter. "It seems like all princess stories end when they get married."

"That's because all their dreams come true when they get married," Will offered, stepping into the room behind Emma.

Billy stuck out his lip. "I don't understand how _all_ a person's dreams could come true just because they get married."

"Why not?" Will put his arm around Emma. "All mine did."

Emma turned her head and gave Will a quick kiss.

"Eww!" moaned Billy.

"Aww!" squealed Audrie.

"Goodnight, kids," said Will, pointedly taking his wife's hand and moving outside of the door.

"Night, Mommy, Night Daddy."

Somewhere else in Lima, Tina Abrams was putting the finishing touches on the nursery she was decorating for the baby she would soon be adopting. She hadn't been able to decide on a color so in the end she had just gone with rainbow. The crib was pink with purple bedding, the changing table was pale red with a black mattress, the walls were white with colorful balloon stickers as decorations, and the toys were all sorts of colors.

"Artie!" called Tina. "I think I finally finished!"

"And not a moment too soon!" called Artie as he entered the room. "I just got a phone call. Our baby is ready now."

Tina practically jumped. "What? Already?"

"I've already booked us a flight to China," said Artie. "Pack your bags, we have to get to the airport _now._"

* * *

The following morning, Burt was just waking up when Carole came into his room dressed in a skirt and top. "You look nice," he remarked.

"We're going out to brunch and then to the spa," said Carole. "You slept in. Finn and Rachel and the kids already left."

"But what about Aiden?" asked Burt.

"Rachel was insistent on dropping him off at Kurt and Blaine's for the day so we could go out. Darndest thing."

"Hmm…on a Tuesday? Strange."

"We're supposed to be retired, remember?" Carole patted Burt's shoulder. "Now go change into something nice.

* * *

Halfway through his work day, Finn got a text from Rachel.

**B&C out 4 the day pls pick up Aiden from Blaine and the girls from school thx**

"Why would she give them a day out in the middle of the week?" Finn wondered to himself. He tried texting her to ask if she could just pick up Aiden on the way home from work, but she never replied. He couldn't concentrate on work for the next two hours. Every time he tried to think about staff meetings and marketing plans and new car designs, the fact that he would have to see Blaine and possibly Kurt today for the first time since this whole stupid surrogacy idea came about took over his train of thought.

At around two-thirty, Finn left the house, arriving at Blaine and Kurt's two bedroom apartment about twenty minutes before he was due to pick up the girls. Their schools were fifteen minutes away, and he figured the closer he cut it, the less time he would have to spend at Blaine's house.

Finn heard a chorus of loud shrieks as he walked up the front steps of the Hummel-Anderson house. Finn knocked on the door. After about a minute, it was opened by a woman about half a head taller than Blaine with big brown eyes framed with long lashes. At first glance, she looked to him like Blaine and Katy Perry's lovechild.

"Francey, right?" Finn guessed, vaguely remembering seeing her at Kurt and Blaine's wedding.

"Hi, Finn," said Francey as she pulled the door shut behind her. "I heard you're being a giant douche."

Finn starred at her incredulously. "Did Kurt and Rachel and Blaine set this up so I'd have to talk to you?"

"Well, it was that or I fucking march down to your house when nobody was looking." Francey planted her right hand on her hip.

Finn gazed at her warily. "Okay, if you don't mind, I'd really like to go in and pick up my kid right now."

"You will in a moment," said Francey firmly. "First, I'm gonna tell you a little story. Once upon a time, there was a teenage girl with a little brother. Just as he was starting high school, her little brother came out of the closet. Which would have been no big deal if nobody at his school had ever found out. But they did. And they instantly started using it as an excuse to treat him like complete and utter shit. Things got hopelessly out of hand, no one did anything about it, and then one day, during one of the final school dances of that girl's senior year, she was dancing with a group of friends when she turned and saw her baby brother _stumbling_ out onto the dance floor broken and covered in blood. After that, her brother transferred to a private school with a no bullying policy, and it seemed like things were going to be all better for him. But they weren't. They were never quite _that bad _again, but he still had to deal with questions from people about how he got that way and if he'd considered seeing a therapist to "fix" his homosexuality. He still had to think about what restaurants were safe to go to on dates with his boyfriend and what places and hours of the day it was safe to walk holding his hand. He still had to get married in a different state than he would have if it were legal in either of the states he lived in. He and his very sweet partner still had to go to greater lengths to become parents than any of their friends ever had to. And now that the girl-woman's-little brother is finally about to become a father, she finds that the one and only person standing his way is her brother-in-law, who _also _had to watch his brother leave his school because he was gay, who _also _had to go to Connecticut for his brother's wedding, and who all and all _should know exactly where she's coming from!"_

Finn took a step back. Francey smiled coyly. "If you were this woman, what would you do? Would you step back and watch your brother's dreams get crushed for the millionth time in his life by some dick who didn't believe that his wife shouldn't be allowed to make anybody happy but him, or do you think she should do something about it?" Finn just blinked. "Or maybe she should wait a few days and see if her brother-in-law will stop being a complete jackhole before she shows him what she's capable of doing to him. Yeah?"

Finn said nothing as Francey opened the door to Blaine's house and strode in. He followed her and saw Blaine helplessly looking on as Aiden and Zarchary tore in circles around the couch he was sitting on with pillowcases tucked into the back of their shirts.

"It's a biwd, it's a pwane, it's Supa Zachawy!" shrieked Aiden.

"He'll probably be all worn out when you get him home," said Blaine sheepishly. "They've been playing together all day long while we've all been in and out of the doctor's office."

"Oh yeah, Rachel and I both had our health checks today," said Francey. "We're in the clear. Kurt's at his appointment now."

"Um…good to know," said Finn. "Aiden, time to go pick up your sisters!" Aiden tumbled into Finn's arms. Finn clumsily handed Blaine back his pillowcase. "See you later."

As Finn listened to Aiden belt out random songs in the backseat of his car, he felt slightly dizzy. Francey had, if possible, just made this even more confusing for him.

"How was your day, Rainbow?" asked Finn as he got out to put Ariana in her car seat.

"Good," said Ariana. "Jackie decided to stop being mean. She got me a sticker book and a unicorn, see?"

"Awesome."

When Finn drove up to the middle school, Lily was waiting outside talking with her best friend, a quiet girl with red hair and freckles, and a blonde boy in a wheelchair Finn didn't recognize. Instead of sitting down, Lily jogged up to Finn's window and tapped on it. "Can I spend the night at Hayley's house?"

Finn thought about it for a moment. "Sure. Just make sure you both do your homework."

"Okay!" Lily paused to blow Aiden and Ariana kisses through the window and then took off.

With no one old enough to understand anything he was about to say in the car, Finn pulled out his cell phone and speed dialed his best friend.

"What's up, Finn?" Sam answered his phone. "I'm a little busy with a housing project right now."

"Do you have a minute?" asked Finn.

"Sure."

Finn glanced in the rearview mirror. Aiden was singing to himself and Ariana was looking through the sticker book Jackie had given her. Both were a little _too _quiet for him to say anything and be sure they wouldn't repeat it.

"Kurt and Blaine are…" Finn hesitated. "They're thinking about baking a bun in Rachel's oven."

"_What?_" said Sam. "What's wrong with their own kitchen?"

"Nothing," Finn lowered his voice. "A _bun_ in her _oven_. Like the one you had last year."

"_Oh!_" said Sam. "_Oh_...so she'd, like have another kid? Being raised by Blaine and Kurt?"

"Not technically," said Finn. "Blaine's sister is donating her eggs. And she just about threatened to bite my head off for being against it. Wouldn't you be against it if your wife were trying to do something like this?"

"Hmm…not really," said Sam. "Not for my own brother. Especially with all the crap Kurt's been through."

Finn couldn't believe what he was hearing. Even _Sam_ wasn't against this?

"Anyway, I really have to go," said Sam. "Later, dude."

"Later."

Finn hung up the phone just as he was arriving at his house. He took the kids out of their car seats and brought them in. Burt and Carole got back ten minutes later.

"Grandma, guess what?" squealed Ariana. "We're having buns in the oven for dinner! And someone's bringing eggs!"

Finn covered his mouth.

"Oh, really?" asked Carole.

"That's tomorrow," said Finn quickly. "I think Rachel borrowed some eggs from a neighbor or something…"

Carole flashed an amused smile and took off upstairs. Finn wondered if his parents still had no idea what was going on.

* * *

The following morning in Lima, Ohio, two very elated passengers were disembarking a plane with their new baby daughter. Tina was carrying their shared overnight bag and looking down at the new baby every few seconds. For once Artie wasn't complaining about the fact that the airport attendants weren't letting him push his own wheelchair because it meant that it made sense for him to be the one to hold Anna Carly.

"I wonder if anyone will ever even realize she's adopted," Artie wondered as he snuggled the baby close.

"Of course they will," said Tina as she lowered her finger for the baby to grab onto with her plump little fist. "She doesn't look anything like me."

"They'll think she looks like a grandparent or something," said Artie. "And personality-wise I'm sure she'll be just like me."

"Yeah, _right_," said Tina.

The whole way back to their house, Artie insisted on sitting in the backseat with Anna Carly.

"Say, "Hi, I'm my daddy's little girl! My mommy thinks I'm going to grow up to be like her, but we'll see about that when I learn how to read faster than I know how to talk and learn how to play video games in Kindergarten and teach high school algebra when I grow up."

Artie saw Tina roll her eyes in the rearview mirror. "Sure, go ahead and make her into a nerdling, see if I care!"

When they got back home, Tina scooped Anna Carly out of her carseat and plunked the overnight bag in Artie's lap. "That's what you get for holding her the whole time in the airport!'

"Oh yeah? Well I'm going to beat you inside!" Artie began zipping ahead of Tina and Anna. He turned his head, "And I'm going to be the first person who gets to show her-"

"AHHH!"

"AHHHH!"

Artie looked down and saw an Asian guy in a dirty grey hoodie and jeans laying at his feet. "Why did you just try to run me over?"

"Why are you sleeping in front of my door?"

"Mike?" Tina whispered softly. She came close behind Artie.

"_Mike_?" Artie echoed. He studied the man's features. He saw the resemblance to his former fellow Glee Club member now that Tina had said it, but the Mike Chang he'd known hadn't looked this...old and beaten down.

"Artie? Tina?" Mike wearily sat up and pulled a backpack close to him that he'd been using as a pillow. "I'm sorry. I didn't know this was your house."

"And yet you're asleep on my doorstep?" asked Artie flatly. "That's crazy."

"No," Mike pulled himself up. "What's _crazy_ is ten years as the great Sunshine Corazon's pet boyfriend. You don't know what it's like with her, man. Straight out of high school she got her record contract and dragged me off to New York with her. She kept promising me all these golden opportunities for my dancing career, but she hasn't let me dance at anything except for her own shows as a background dancer. She won't introduce me as her boyfriend because she's afraid it would make her look bad."

"If you were unhappy, why didn't you just leave her?" asked Tina softly.

"I couldn't! It wasn't safe!" Mike frantically lowered his voice. "Seriously, you do not know the meaning of controlling relationships until you've dated Sunshine. I wasn't allowed to be out of her sight for more than half an hour except to run errands for her, and then if I wasn't back in time she'd lock me in a closet for the rest of the day. The rest of her servants-the ones who actually got paid-she would fire at the drop of a hat if they gave her a cup of tea that was 75 degrees in temperature instead of 78. And she's even more psycho on the days when she isn't high."

"Sounds like somebody's got a Napoleon complex," muttered Artie.

"More like Napoleon had a _her_ complex," Mike retorted, pulling his hoodie over his head. "Nice seeing you guys. I have to find somewhere else to hide. Don't tell anybody you saw me. Even my parents. But if my dad asks if you've heard from me in the past few years, let him know that I wish I'd become a doctor like he wanted."

"Will do," said Artie. "Nice seeing you, too."

"Wait!" said Tina. "Don't go. You should stay the night."

"It's only, like, noon," said Mike.

"That's fine," said Tina. "Actually, stay here for a few days. Just until you figure out something to do besides sleeping on random doorsteps. He can sleep on the couch, _right Artie_?"

Artie bit the inside of his lip. "Yeah. Sure. That's fine."

* * *

**A/N: Once again, the characters of Francey and Zachary belong to Keitorin Asthore. She's brilliant, go read all her stories. The main focus of this story is still going to be on Finn, Rachel, Kurt, Blaine, and Puck, this chapter was just to show what's going on with the other characters.**


	7. Standing By Waiting At Your Back Door

Ariana Christine Hudson was very happy with the way things were going in her world at the moment. She was glad she hadn't given up on her preschool, because if she had, Jackie never would have apologized for the horrible things she used to do to everyone, and she and Ariana never would have become friends. Having Jackie as a friend was better than she could have imagined. Mostly because she was older and knew all sorts of cool tricks that Ariana didn't yet.

"Hey, Nathan!" said Ariana as she marched up to a chubby boy around her age. "I drew something. Guess what it is and you get a prize!" She slapped her obscure drawing on the table in front of him.

"Um…a dog?"

"No."

"A cat?"

"No."

"A rainbow?"

"No."

"A pony?"

"No. You only get three more tries!"

After Nathan used up all his tries, Ariana ran over to where Jackie was crouched behind the easel with a bag full of cookies.

"Great job keeping him distracted!" whispered Jackie as she handed Ariana two cookies.

Ariana grinned and popped a cookie in her mouth. "Are you sure it's really okay to steal his food just because he's already fat anyway?"

"Of course it is," said Jackie. "Just wait until we get to steal his Halloween candy!"

"Art time is almost over, children!" called out Miss Natalie in her singsong voice. "I can't wait to see all the beautiful drawings you made!"

"My drawing doesn't look beautiful," said Ariana sadly. "It looks like a rainbow threw up on my paper."

Jackie giggled. "Go switch it with Evan's drawing while he's in the bathroom. His are always good."

"Okay!"

Half an hour later out on the playground, Jackie and Ariana were sitting under the tree. "Should we play dragons in the tower again?" asked Ariana.

"There's not enough time," said Jackie. "We're going home soon."

"Oh."

"But there is a new game for us to play," said Jackie. "It's called spies."

Ariana lowered her voice. "How's that work?"

"You have a big sister named Lily, right? She's our head spy."

Ariana's eyes widened. "Lily's a spy?"

"Yeah," said Jackie. "But she doesn't know we know that. All you have to do…" she reached into her pocket and pulled out a silver charm bracelet. "Is give her this and tell her you don't know where you got it."

"Okay!" Ariana didn't quite understand the logic of any of that, but she was willing to do anything to impress Jackie and learn more cool tricks.

"There's my Daddy!" Jackie took off and ran for Puck's pickup truck. Ariana sat under the tree and quietly fingered the charm bracelet for a moment and then put it away in her backpack.

* * *

In Lima, Artie was sitting in the doorway to Anna Carly's room watching her play in her playpen. She was just beginning to crawl already, so they couldn't leave her anywhere else unsupervised.

"Who's daddy's wittle girl?" Artie crooned as he moved closer to the baby. She squealed. "Yeth, who's daddy's wittle girl?"

"How about who sounds even more dorky talking to his baby than he does the rest of the time?"

Tina came up, kissed him on the cheek, and took Anna Carly out of the playpen. "Find something cute to dress her up in, will you? I promised Mike we could go out to dinner someplace."

Artie tightened his jaw. "I thought Mike was trying to keep a low profile."

"He is. But come on. The guy hasn't had a decent meal in years." Tina plunked the baby on Artie's lap. "Be ready in ten minutes."

"No problem," thought Artie, secretly cursing Mike under his breath. Was it really too much to ask for some alone time with his wife and his daughter who'd they'd brought home from China less than two days ago?

* * *

"_Can't you see that I'm  
__The one who understands you  
__Been here all along,  
__So why can't you see  
__You belong with me…"_

"Why are we listening to this song?" Lily asked her best friend Hayley as she wrote her name at the top of a blank page in her math notebook. "It's like older than we are."

"Because this is my mom's iPod, mine isn't working," Hayley replied. "What's the square root of eighty-one?"

"Probably six," said Lily. "Not that I care. I already know what I want to do with my life, and it doesn't involve math problems."

"What?"

Lily and Hayley turned to see Ariana standing in the doorway sheepishly. "Why are you eavesdropping?" snapped Lily.

"I'm not," said Ariana. "I came to give you this." She walked over to the bed and set a charm bracelet down on Lily's notebook.

Lily picked up the bracelet. It was silver with two black musical notes, a white heart, and a blue Star of David as charms. "This is beautiful, thank you." Ariana beamed. "Where did you get it?"

"_I'm not allowed to tell you_!" the little girl whispered before bolting out of the room.

"She's so cute," said Hayley. "Don't suppose you'd trade her for my stinky big brother."

"Not today," mumbled Lily as she slipped the bracelet onto her hand. _She probably got this from Rachel_, Lily thought. "I think I was wrong, actually. The square root of eighty one is seven."

* * *

That night after dinner, Rachel asked Carole to put the kids to bed so that she could go back over to Kurt and Blaine's house.

"Are you sure this has to be done tonight?" Rachel questioned as she entered their house.

"Francey just put Zachary to bed, and the sooner we get this done, the better," said Kurt.

"Get what done?" asked Rachel.

Francey and Blaine stepped out of the kitchen. "I picked up a few pieces of paperwork from the doctor's office that we all need to go over before we freeze the embryos," said Francey.

"How few?" asked Rachel.

Blaine glanced grimly in the direction of the table. "This few."

Rachel froze as she entered the kitchen and saw a stack of papers sitting in the middle about three inches high.

Kurt folded his arms across his chest. "I say this is going to take all night and an entire case of Red Bull."

* * *

"Goodnight, Puckerette," Puck whispered as he the blanket around his daughter's shoulders. He got up and walked out into the hallway of his loft. Moving boxes were piled high in his living room. Two open suitcases sat in the middle full of his clothes and Jackie's clothes. Jackie's room was the only one in the house that was actually finished being put together. The only pieces of furniture anywhere else were an old brown couch, which served as their place to eat and Puck's bed, and a desk in the corner.

Puck sat down at his desk and closed his eyes for a moment. Right now, for the first time in her life, his daughter had something in her possession that _he_ had given her. He imagined it around her wrist right now, the charms winking under the light of her bedside lamp. Not that he knew what Lily looked like anymore. The last time he'd seen her, she'd been two. Did she still have his nose and his dark hair and his dopey smile and Quinn's cheeks and green eyes? Was her hair long or short? Did she still like to play in sandcastles and would always point and say "Mama" whenever she saw a picture of Quinn? Well, of course not. She must be eleven by now. Did she even remember him? Had Finn told her who he was? Did anyone even know that he wasn't her real father?

Puck resisted the urge to punch something for the sole reason that it would have woken Jackie up. Instead, he unlocked the bottom drawer to his desk and pulled out his folder and made sure everything was in there. Everything else that he was planning for Lily to see, little by little.

* * *

The stack of papers on Kurt and Blaine's dining room table was diminishing little by little, bit by bit. Unfortunately, most of it was spilling out onto the rest of the table. Their "done" folder was still disturbingly thin.

"So fucking many that have to be notarized," mumbled Francey. She reached into her bag and picked up her phone for the twelfth time that night.

"Why don't you stop calling Dad every few seconds and just ask him to come up here?" mumbled Blaine as he took another sip of Red Bull.

"Lawyers can't just drop everything they're doing and take a trip to New York," said Francey. "It looks bad. Besides, Kurt and I are due to have our ingredients removed in two weeks, and we can only do that if we finish this paperwork by noon tomorrow."

Blaine gave Francey the look. "_Ingredients_?"

Kurt rubbed his eyes sleepily. "Blaine, would you mind running down to the convenience store and picking up some more red bull?"

"And coffee," said Rachel.

"And ice cream," said Francey.

"Oh sure, make _me_ do all the work," moaned Blaine.

"You mean you're doing all the work because Rachel and I have like ninety percent of the forms?" said Francey snappishly.

"I'll take whatever forms you guys have and one of you can go shopping," Blaine begged weakly. "I don't wanna go outside in the dark alone."

Francey rolled her eyes and patted her brother's shoulder. "So spoiled, Babbie."

"Besides, you can't," said Kurt. "Francey and Rachel have most of the forms because they have to sign away all their rights to the baby. And because I'm the one who will be locked in a room with a bunch of disgusting porn in a matter of days while your sister is on an operating table, you get the easy part."

Rachel half laughed. "I've been through pregnancy and raising kids, and trust me, conceiving and carrying them in your stomach for nine _months is_ the easy part."

"Now," Francey spoke up. "About that ice cream…"

Blaine frowned stubbornly.

"Okay, _fine_," said Kurt. "_I'll _go. But don't go signing anything I'm supposed to be signing." Kurt kissed his boyfriend on the top of the head, grabbed his coat, and disappeared out the door.

"Hey, check this out!" said Francey. "We can do up to four embryos at a time."

Rachel didn't even look up. "No. Way."

"Chances are only one or two of them would stick," Francey pressed.

"And if all four stick then I'll explode and probably never be able to dance onstage again," said Rachel.

"Besides," said Blaine. "We're barely ready to have one baby, let alone four."

"Right. Well, how about we just do two then?"

"Okay," Rachel relented. Chances are that only one would stick, and even if they both did, twins couldn't be that bad, right?

"Good," said Francey. "Look over this form then."

* * *

Ice cream, check. Red bull, check. Coffee, check.

"Have a good day," said the smiling cashier as she handed Kurt his receipt.

"Thanks, you too."

Kurt walked outside carrying his lone grocery bag. He pulled off his coat and wrapped it around his waist. The chill in the air wasn't too bad, and it was only three blocks to walk back to his house.

"Hey, queer boy!"

Kurt turned around and saw two heavily muscled men standing behind him. His heart instantly dropped into his stomach. "What do you want?" he asked as calmly as he could.

One of the men laughed. "Oh my god, is that a _gay pride_ pin?" he stepped closer and ripped the pin off of Kurt's shirt, tearing a hole in the fabric.

"I think so," said the other man. "Be proud of this." Before Kurt could say anything, he was thrown against a wire fence and punched in the stomach. Then the other man kicked him in the face.

"And look. He doesn't even fight back."

"Yeah, canary, if you're so _proud_ of who you are, why don't you defend yourself?"

"Because he's gayer than a fucking purple unicorn, that's why!"

Kurt heard the men laugh again and then felt a thud as everything went dark.

* * *

"What does IVF mean?" asked Rachel.

"In vitro fertilization," said Francey. "Hormone injections are what I get for two weeks before the procedure and you get for two weeks after, and implantation is the part they do to you. Helps to have a doctor on bored, huh?"

Blaine made a face at her. "You work in an emergency room. That has nothing to do with pregnancy."

"Doesn't mean I don't know the terms."

"You guys, it's been forty-five minutes. Why isn't Kurt back by now?"

"Yeah, seriously," said Francey. "Where's my ice cream?"

"I don't know," said Blaine. "He won't return any of my texts."

"I'm going to try calling him," said Rachel. In the instant that she whipped out her cell phone, Blaine's started to ring.

"Kurt, is that you?" asked Blaine.

"If it is, tell him to hurry back," said Rachel. "I think he needs to sign this form."

Francey took the form Rachel was holding. "That one's for me."

Rachel saw Blaine's face turn white as he his finger hit the red button and his hand lowered. "Blaine, what's wrong?"

"Kurt was beaten up in the street," Blaine whispered shakily. "They think it was a hate crime."

Rachel stood up so fast her chair almost fell over. "Is he on his way home? We should go get him."

"That was the hospital," said Blaine. "He's not even conscious."

Rachel grabbed her purse off the table. "Let's go."

"Wait for me!" said Francey. She went into the living room and scooped a sleeping Zachary out of his crib. "Screw these forms, I'm driving us." She grabbed the keys to Blaine's car on the way out the door.

* * *

Dark and silent one moment, white and loud the next. White walls, white ceiling, white sheets, white-clothed people. Kurt tried to lift his hand to clutch his spinning head, but his wrist was throbbing. Everything was throbbing…

"Kurt!"

"Kurt!"

Kurt turned his head in the direction of two short blurry figures, one male and one female. The male one took Kurt's hand in his.

"Kurt…can you hear me?" he whispered desperately.

Blaine.

"Why the hell haven't you given him an X-Ray or an MRI yet? What kind of internal damage are we looking at? What type of concussion does he have?"

Kurt's eyes stung when he shifted them. Was that Rachel yelling at the man in the white coat…no… it was Francey in full on doctor mode. Rachel was putting her hand on his cheek. Or was that Blaine? No…it was Rachel…Blaine was still holding his hand and talking…but all the words were going blurry…all the people were going blurry…

And everything was dark again.

* * *

"We've done the X-rays and found some internal damage. Your husband is going to need surgery immediately. Fortunately his concussion wasn't too bad. He'll need to rest for a couple of weeks."

Blaine could barely concentrate on the doctor's words as he numbly stood next to his husband and held his hand.

"I'll have the forms ready for you to sign in a minute."

The doctor walked out of the room, leaving the couple alone. Rachel and Francey stood behind a large glass window facing the hallway, Zachary still fast asleep on his mother's shoulder.

"Twelve years ago, that was Blaine," said Francey. "It's why I became a doctor."

Rachel exhaled slowly as she let warm tears run down her cheeks. "We _made him_ go out there, Francey. _We_ made him go."

Francey put her arm around Rachel. "No we didn't. He offered. Nobody would have fucking cared about groceries if we'd even thought…"

Rachel was oddly disconcerted when she realized even Francey had tears in her eyes. But she blinked them back quickly.

"It's not our fault," said Francey firmly. "Or Blaine's, or Kurt's. Trust me, I see this kind of thing all the time."

Rachel hugged Francey back shakily. "Sorry I'm so useless right now."

"_Useless_?" Francey smirked. "In a month you'll be carrying their baby."

"Oh my god," whispered Burt as he came up behind them, Carole following close.

"What's wrong?" asked Carole.

"He'll need surgery," said Francey. She launched into an explanation of everything that was wrong with Kurt and why. Rachel glanced around for Finn and then realized he must be at home with the kids.

By the next morning, Kurt had gotten through surgery but was still in critical condition. Only two people were allowed to be in the room at a time, so Blaine had stayed with him while the others were in and out in shifts. Most of the time it was Burt or Rachel in the room with him while Carole made coffee runs and Francey just kept everyone company and made sure Zachary stayed asleep.

"Who the hell would want to do this to my boy?" Burt muttered to himself as he stumbled out of the room looking like he was about to punch something. Carole put her hand on his shoulder. Francey, all out of reassurances, just shrugged limply.

Rachel was about to ask if she should go in next when she heard the sound of little feet running on the tile floor.

"Mommy, Mommy!" squealed Aiden urgently.

"Daddy said Uncle Kurt got hurt!" said Ariana.

Rachel looked down at her two brown eyed babies. Finn and Lily were following close behind them.

"What happened?" asked Lily.

Rachel froze. How was she supposed to explain to these children that their uncle had been beaten within an inch of his life for having the audacity to be himself?

"Can I see him?" asked Finn softly.

Rachel and Francey were both about to open their mouths to protest when Burt smiled and said, "Sure! He and Blaine are right over here."

Francey looked at Rachel urgently. Rachel shrugged helplessly. "Be nice, Finn!" she called out warningly. Carole laughed. She and Burt still had no idea about the surrogacy plan or Finn's reaction.

Finn didn't know what to say as he entered the tiny dark hospital room. He might have known what to say if he were at least speaking to Kurt and Blaine at the moment, but he wasn't…or at least wouldn't be if it weren't for this.

There was his brother, lying flat in a hospital gown surrounded by beeping machines and tubes connected to his chest or his arm. He had never looked so small before. Blaine was sitting as close to him as humanly possible holding both his hands and whispering so quietly Finn couldn't hear what he was saying.

"Kurt?" said Finn as he touched his brother's shoulder. "You're gonna be okay. Everything's gonna be okay."

Finn glanced at Blaine, who was looking up at him tearfully with a what-the-hell-are-you-doing-in-here face. "Everything's gonna be okay. I promise." Finn let go and bolted out of the room before Blaine could say anything.

When Finn walked out into the hall, Francey and Rachel were both visibly surprised to see him back so soon. "Where are Burt and Carole?" asked Finn.

"They left to go get something to eat," said Francey. Rachel was quietly sitting on a bench and crying while Ariana and Aiden stood by Francey and talked to Zachary, who was beginning to wake up. Finn sat down on the bench across from Rachel. Lily walked over and sat between them.

"What happened?" asked Lily. "I don't understand. He just randomly got beat up?"

Finn looked over at Rachel. "How random was it?"

"They ripped the gay pride pin off his shirt," said Rachel, looking at a spot on the wall ahead of her. Ariana and Aiden noticed that Finn was back and came over.

"Where Uncle Kurt?" asked Aiden.

"He's…resting," said Finn.

"He okay?" asked Ariana.

Finn scooped up the two children at once and set them on his legs. "He's gonna be fine. Whoever beat them up did it because they don't know better and don't realize Kurt is a good normal person with a family who loves him very much and a husband and a baby on the way."

All three kids had their eyes glued to Finn in a second.

"_What?_" said Lily.

"Well, you see…" All three children continued to gaze at him. "Most babies come from their mommy's tummy, but because Kurt and Blaine are both boys, we're letting them plant a seed in your mommy's tummy so that she can grow it for them."

"_Ohhh_," said Ariana.

Aiden's eyes widened. "Can I pwant it?"

"No," said Finn. "Only doctors can plant it."

"Aw," said Aiden.

"Is this for real?" asked Lily.

"Of course it is," said Finn. "We'll explain it more later, okay?"

"Okay."

"Kurt and Blaine are having a _baby_!" squealed Ariana.

Finn smiled and hugged all his children close, glancing up long enough to catch Rachel's tearful smile and Francey's approving nod.

**A/N: Once again, Francey and Zachary are owned by Keitorin Asthore. So is the backstory of how she became a doctor. And the Red Bull is kind of a loose reference to her oneshot "Red Bull and Cookie Dough".**


	8. It Ain't So Hard To Take

Lily was sitting on her bed leafing through her father's senior yearbook some more. She smiled at the sight of Santana Lopez at the top of the pyramid and Brittany below her. She'd made up stories in her head for all the football players who her father hadn't told her about, but not the cheerleaders. She decided to name the redheaded one on the bottom left Avril...for some reason, she just looked like an Avril. She was best friends with the dark haired on standing just below Brittany, who Lily named Phoebe. They were cousins who had grown up in an orphanage together and still hadn't realized they were related. Avril's favorite color was grey and her favorite thing to do was sketch cartoon characters. Phoebe's favorite color was pink and she was a clothing designer.

Just outside Lily's bedroom door, Ariana was peering in through the crack.

"Find any cookies?" asked Aiden.

"Shh!" said Ariana. Then she lowered her voice. "Is that book something Lily looks at every day?"

"Yeah," said Aiden. "Why?"

"Kids…" Aiden and Ariana turned to see Rachel looking at them warningly. "Are you two hunting for cookies again?"

"No," said Ariana.

"Good," said Rachel. "Why don't you guys come over here and play in the living room while I make dinner?"

"Okay."

Rachel's phone started ringing as she headed downstairs. It was Kurt. "Hey, how are you feeling?"

"Alright," said Kurt weakly but cheerily. "Guess who's at his appointment at the fertility clinic on his originally scheduled date?"

"Kurt Elijah Hummel!" Rachel scolded. "You're _supposed_ to still be on bedrest!"

"It's been _two weeks_, I'm fine," said Kurt. "Francey and Blaine are here too and when we come home Francey and I will both be on bedrest for the next twenty-four hours."

"Be careful," said Rachel warningly, although she knew that if Francey and Blaine were there they'd never let Kurt do anything dangerous.

"I will. Gotta go they're calling me."

"Great! Only good swimmers now!" Rachel hung up and giggled as she imagined Kurt blushing. Ariana looked up at Rachel and her eyes lit up.

"Good swimmers? What?"

"Nothing you need to worry about," said Rachel hurriedly. "Uncle Kurt's just…out shopping."

"Yay!" Ariana cheered.

"What's going on?" asked Carole, who was already in the living room reading the paper on the couch.

"Uncle Kurt's buying a pet fish!"

"Yay!" squealed Aiden.

Carole looked up at Rachel, who shook her head and half smiled. "Kids say the darndest things." Then Rachel glanced at the TV. "Are you watching Sue's Corner?"

Carole, who hadn't even been paying attention to the TV, looked up. "And that is why I firmly believe that learning how to spell is a waste of time," said Sue. "On other fronts, it appears that a certain rising star has fallen. Sunshine had a public meltdown several days ago, not because her new single isn't a top twenty song yet, not because her boyfriend who we didn't know she had apparently left her for his high school sweetheart, but because she lost the money she needed to buy drugs. However, she was reportedly seen happily taking a walk in central park yesterday. Isn't that sweet? Taking a walk in nature to try and rehabilitate her public image. What that really tells us is one thing: kids, don't buy drugs. Become a pop star so that people give them to you for free. And that's how Sue…C's it."

* * *

In Ohio, Artie was sitting in the living room watching Sue's Corner while Tina and Mike were in the kitchen laughing. He clicked off the TV and purposely made his way over to the kitchen.

"What's going on?" he demanded.

"We're feeding Anna Carly," said Mike. "Look, she keeps putting it in her hair."

"Hm," Artie managed a tight smile. "Tina, can I talk to you for a second?"

"Sure," Tina smiled at Mike before leaving. "Don't you dare let her get food all over the floor!"

The moment they were out of Mike's earshot, Tina said, "There's something I've been wanting to talk to you about."

"Yeah, me too," said Artie. "Mike has been here for over two weeks."

"I know," said Tina. "And so far we haven't charged him rent or anything. So I was thinking, maybe when I go back to work next week, he can be our nanny.

"_What_?" Artie practically snapped.

"I know we were planning on having your Mom watch the baby, but wouldn't this be more convenient?" asked Tina. "Especially since Anna is still getting to know us and her environment."

"Yeah, and her _family_," Artie protested. "I was actually kind of thinking that Mike's overstayed his welcome."

"Why?" asked Tina. "He's been _great_. He helps with the baby while you're at work, he helps me clean the house, he's always polite, hell, you didn't even had a problem with it when Santana stayed with us for three weeks after her fight with Brittany and she was crazy."

"That's because Santana wasn't leaving her girlfriend for you!" Artie finally snapped.

Tina's mouth fell open. "You seriously think…oh my _god_, Artie. Mike was running away from an abusive relationship, and he knows I'm married, and just…"

Neither of them said anything for a second.

"You're just being a total guy," Tina mumbled as she walked back into the kitchen to clean up the baby.

* * *

When Lily got home from school the next day, the first thing she did was, as usual, take Star for a walk. Then she went upstairs and pulled her homework out of her book bag. An essay on the cell cycle and a page of long division problems…_boring._ She glanced naughtily at the yearbook sitting next to her bed. Maybe it would be okay to look through it for just a _minute._ Then she realized it looked like there was something stuck in the pages. Sometimes she left notes for herself there. But she didn't remember doing it today.

Lily picked up the yearbook and opened it. Inside was a piece of paper folded and taped shut with a sticker. She opened it.

"Lily,

Please dont menshion this note too anywon but I need you to know that you ar an amazing girl and your always on my mind.

Daddy loves you."

Lily smiled to herself, unfolded the note, and tucked it in the bottom of her drawer. The note had clearly been written fast, as the handwriting and spelling were far more careless than she would have expected from Finn, but it was a sweet gesture anyway.

* * *

Five days later, Rachel was lying on a hospital table holding Finn's hand.

"Does it hurt?" she asked the doctor who was about to implant two fertilized embryos in her uterus.

"It's a little uncomfortable, but not really painful. Just try to relax. You don't have to look if you don't want to."

"Okay." Rachel smiled up at her husband as he squeezed her hand gently. Being here having this done with Finn's complete and total support was all she had ever hoped for.

* * *

Kurt got out of his car after the first drive since his accident. He looked around the middle school entranceway and saw his eleven-year-old niece sitting on one of the bottom steps talking with a group of other kids.

"Lily, come here," he called softly. She heard him and came running. Which was just as well. He was beginning to feel uneasy for some reason. Probably because the fencing around the school was the same kind of fencing he'd been slammed into when he was attacked.

"Hey!" said Lily. "You're feeling better."

"Yeah," Kurt slung his arm around his niece's shoulders. "I haven't picked you up from school since you were a little kid. Back when I lived with you and knew who all your little friends were."

"Yeah," said Lily. "Everyone standing over by that corner of the steps is my friend now. That girl with the long red hair is my best friend, and that boy…" she pointed to a blonde boy in a wheelchair "Is my boyfriend."

Kurt almost choked. "_What_?" Lily grinned shyly. "How long have you had a boyfriend?"

"About three weeks," said Lily dreamily. "He's _amazing_. He carries my books _everywhere_ for me. And he doesn't play soccer or football like the other boys so while he watches them play I just sit next to him and watch _him_." Lily glanced up at Kurt. "And he has even prettier eyes than you do. Did Blaine fall in love with you because you have pretty eyes?" Lily frowned. "Kurt, are you okay? You look a little pale."

"Huh? I'm fine," said Kurt, even though he honestly felt a little sick at the thought of the girl he'd known since she was in a stroller being old enough to sort of date someone. In twelve years, this could be _his_ son or daughter.

Kurt opened the passenger door of his car and let Lily hop inside. Then he got in the other side.

"Are we picking up Ariana too?" asked Lily.

"No," said Kurt. "She's and Aiden are with Grandma and Grandpa right now. I picked you up because I wanted to talk to you about something." Lily put her hands in her lap and looked up quietly. "Finn told me when I was in the hospital he told you and the little ones that Blaine and I were planting a seed in Rachel."

Lily made a face. "Yeah, he kind of explained how they're doing it. Is that where they are right now?"

"Yeah," said Kurt. "What do you think of all this?"

Lily looked away and fingered her charm bracelet. "It's okay. I mean…it seems strange to have a baby grown in someone else's body, but I understand why you're doing it. You're both guys."

Kurt smiled to himself. "Exactly. And at the end you'll have a brand new baby cousin."

"And it's gonna be gay, right?"

Kurt laughed. "Not necessarily. It has just as high of a chance of being gay as you and your siblings do."

"_Oh…_" mumbled Lily. "Is it at least gonna look like you?"

"It could look like either me or Blaine," said Kurt. Lily nodded. "Blaine says he's hoping it'll have my eyes and his hair."

"Is it a boy or a girl?" asked Lily.

"Could be either. We don't know yet."

"Oh," said Lily. "Well, a girl with your eyes would be really pretty."

Kurt smiled. "Thanks."

Lily smiled and gave him her best attempt at a side hug while they were strapped into their seats. "I'm really glad you're okay, though."

"Of course I'm okay," said Kurt reassuringly as he squeezed her back.

"What happened to you, anyway?" asked Lily softly as she slumped back into her seat. "Daddy and Rachel just told us you got beaten up, but I don't understand how that could have happened. We may be in New York, but you're not the street fighting type."

Kurt wondered whether or not he should tell his niece the real reason he got beaten up. Maybe Finn and Rachel hadn't told her anything for a reason. But maybe just leaving her confused would be even worse.

"It wasn't because you're gay, was it?" asked Lily.

"Yes," Kurt finally relented. He watched Lily's face twist into various confused and shocked expressions and regret it.

"But that makes _no sense_," whispered Lily angrily.

"You know that because you've known me your whole life." Kurt kept his voice as polite as he could. "And Blaine. And Brittany and Santana, and Rachel's Dads. People who don't know someone who's gay or haven't been taught that it's okay to be yourself find the concept strange."

"They can get over themselves," snapped Lily. "Not understanding is no excuse to _attack you_ for it!"

"I know," Kurt replied.

Lily didn't say anything.

Kurt cleared his throat and nudged Lily. "Want to go shopping?"

She gave a small smile. "Sure."

At a stoplight, Kurt glance down long enough to change the song on his iPod to one that the New Directions had recorded ages ago. Lily smiled when she realized what it was.

_Hey, you may think  
__That I'm a zero  
__But hey, everyone you wanna be  
__Probably started off like me  
__You may say that I'm a freak show  
__But hey, give me just a little time  
__I bet you're gonna chance your mind  
__All of the dirty you've been throwing my way  
__It ain't so hard to take  
__'Cause I know one day you'll be screaming my name  
__And I'll just look away_

* * *

_She had the note._ Jackie had promised.

Puck opened up the bottom drawer on the side of his desk and pulled out a stack of photographs. Then another one that was identical to it. Then another.

"_Hey_…" Puck nearly jumped at the sound of his daughter's voice. "I thought you left all our copies of that picture back in California."

"I didn't bring very many of them," Puck explained.

"That's a _lot_," Jackie replied as she plopped down on the floor beside him. "I didn't see you take any of them down from your bedroom wall."

"I didn't," Puck assured her. "They're all new ones."

Jackie tilted her large head to one side and frowned, somehow looking more like her mother in that one moment than she ever had. "I don't understand what's so special about _that_ picture. Most people don't have this many copies of one photograph."

Puck smiled and patted his daughter's head. "All in good time, Puckerette. Why don't you go watch TV for a little while?"

Jackie hopped up. "Okay!"

Then Puck began leafing through the stacks of identical photographs looking for the best quality picture with the least teardrops on it. The tears began to fall as he examined each one. Every perfect lock of two-year-old Lily's hair. Every grain of sand clinging to her floral shirt and tiny arms as she played in their sandbox back in Lima, Ohio, the last time her biological father had seen her.


	9. Poinsonous

Lily's face lit up as a photograph fell from the yearbook pages and onto her bedspread. She picked it up and recognized it as a photo of herself from about nine years ago. She also knew she was at a playground in Lima, because she had also seen a photo of herself playing in the same sandbox in her mother's lap when she was about six months old

Curious, Lily turned the photograph around to the back. There, written in the same sloppy handwriting as the last note she'd found tucked into the yearbook, were the words:

"I took this picshur the last time I saw you. I cant tell you how sory I am that I let him take you away frum me but I promis Im going to make up for it now. We will be together soon. Love, Daddy. P.S. Don't menshun this won eether."

Confused, Lily frowned and slid the photograph into the bottom of her drawer with the other note.

* * *

"Daddy! Daddy!"

Finn put his finger to his lips as his shrieking three-year-old daughter bolted into his office. "Like I've said before, we can't afford to upgrade all of those machines right now. Look, we can talk about this tomorrow at the teleconference. Okay. Yeah. You too. Bye." Finn removed his cell phone from his ear and returned Ariana's bright smile as she hopped up and down in front of him. "What's going on, Rainbow?"

"Uncle Kurt and Uncle Blaine are coming over for dinner! They have a 'nouncement to make!"

"That's great!" Finn scooped up his little girl, knowing exactly what the announcement must be considering that it had been exactly three weeks since Rachel's in vitro fertilization.

"Grandma and Grandpa are coming home from a car show now," said Ariana. "Uncle Blaine and Mommy are helping Uncle Kurt make dinner, Aiden's watching them, and Lily's in her room.

"Why don't we find Lily and Aiden and see if they want to go to the park with us before dinner?" Finn suggested.

"Yeah!" Ariana half shrieked.

"Hey, Drizzle!" called Finn. "Want to come somewhere with us?"

"Okay!" called Lily.

Finn poked his head in the kitchen, where Kurt was busily instructing Blaine and Rachel and Aiden was sitting uncharacteristically still on a stepstool.

"Hey buddy, want to come to the park with us?"

Aiden shook his head furiously. "Staying with _Mommy_."

Finn frowned and glanced at Rachel. "Is he sick or something?"

Rachel shrugged. "I don't think so. He's just refused to leave my side since we got back from the doctor's appointment this morning."

"You sure you don't want to come to the park?" Finn prodded gently. Aiden shook his head. "Mommy will still be here when we get back."

"_No_," replied Aiden.

"Okay. See you later, buddy."

By the time Finn and the girls got back from the playground, Burt and Carole were back and just about seated at the table. Finn had the girls scrub up and took his usual seat next to Rachel who, at Aiden's request, had sat down at the table next to her and before Kurt and Blaine were done in the kitchen. Ariana sat between Finn and Carole and Lily sat between Burt and Blaine's empty seat.

Burt and Carole noticed that Kurt and Blaine looked nervous as they served the food. By the time they finally sat down, Kurt was pale and Blaine was practically shaking.

"Okay, boys, let's hear it," Burt finally said. "I can tell you have something to say. What is it? Do you need help paying off hospital bills or something?"

Kurt laughed nervously. "We've got that covered."

"Are you moving?"

"Nope."

"Are you both joining the army?"

"_No_." How the hell had he even come up with that?

"Then _what is it_?"

Kurt looked off to the side, a lot more nervous than he'd expected to be in this moment.

"Aiden, why won't you stop starring at Mommy?" Ariana asked irritably.

Aiden looked over at his sister and yelled, "I'm WAITING for the seed to finish growing!"

Kurt's face turned white. Carole's eyes widened. "Are you pregnant?"

"Um…not really?" Rachel glanced helplessly at Kurt. Burt and Carole looked at each other in confusion and Lily giggled to herself.

Kurt grinned nervously and clapped his hands together. "But _we_ are."

To Kurt's relief, his father's face lit up with a look of pure delight. "Kurt…you mean…"

"You're going to be a grandfather," Blaine announced almost calmly. He squeezed Kurt's hand.

"It's in Rachel," Lily burst out. Burt smiled at her. "Kurt and Blaine couldn't get pregnant themselves because they're both boys and boys don't have a uterus."

"I'm sure Grandpa already knows that, Lily," said Kurt firmly.

"My family tree project is gonna look really complicated by the time we get a frame to put it in," Lily continued. "Imagine if I ever have to present it again. It'll be like, And then my dad married Rachel and then Kurt married Blaine and then Rachel had everyone's babies and they live happily ever after."

"Remember, though, I'm only growing this baby," Rachel reminded her stepdaughter gently. "After it's born, it'll be all Blaine's and Kurt's."

"You're actually going to be their surrogate, Rachel?" Carole asked. The look on her face was slightly shocked but not at all displeased.

"Correction, I already _am _their surrogate."

Aiden patted her still flat belly seriously. "Yep. It's all pwanted."

"Aiden, babies take a really long time to grow," said Lily gently. "I should know. You took _forever_."

Aiden made a sad face. "_Hey…"_

"It's going to take almost a year, honey," said Rachel. "I'll let you know when your cousin is finished growing, okay?"

"Okay." Finally Aiden looked away from Rachel and started focusing on his dinner.

Finn looked up and caught his mother giving him a look that for the second time in his life, he didn't deserve. That look that he knew was telling him right now that she was so proud of him for being such a good brother.

"It was Rachel's idea," said Finn, exchanging a momentary smile with his wife. Everyone toasted Rachel, alleviating the look for awhile. Then after dinner, Carole took Finn aside long enough to give him a hug and tell him how proud she was that he was so supportive of this. He smiled politely and walked away. But he knew he didn't deserve his mother's praise. If anyone did, it was Francey. She was the one who'd made him at least start considering letting his guard down about the whole thing, not to mention that she was the one who'd technically made it possible.

But it definitely wasn't Finn.

"Hey, Finn?" Rachel poked her head out of their master bathroom. "You okay?"

Finn sighed and pulled his long legs up onto the bed. "Were you at Burt and Mom's wedding?"

Surprised, Rachel shook her head. "Kurt invited me, but I figured it would have been too awkward with you and Quinn then. Why?"

"My mom told me how proud she was of me for being a good brother to Kurt as part of her wedding vows."

"That's really nice," said Rachel sweetly as she sat down on the bed next to Finn.

"She made it up," Finn mumbled, looking straight ahead as if he were ashamed to make eye contact with anyone. "Either that or she was just plain oblivious. Did you know anything about what Kurt was going through right then?"

"Yeah, I remember it was only a few weeks after Karofsky hate-kissed him, right?" Finn's eyes darted to her in shock. Rachel bit her lip. "Oh. You didn't know about that."

"No, I didn't. I was an even worse brother than I thought."

"You're not a bad brother," said Rachel quickly. "Karofsky threatened to _kill_ him if he told anyone. He was afraid to even tell me."

"But _you_ noticed and _I _didn't, and you weren't even at our school."

"That's probably why he was less afraid of letting me know," Rachel squeezed Finn's arm. "Why are you thinking about all this now? We're happy, Kurt's happy…"

"I just hate seeing my mom looking at me like I'm such a great guy for being okay with this," Finn blurted out. "It took Kurt almost getting killed for me to be okay with it, and even now I'm just barely…"

"Finn, it's okay," Rachel finally said after a moment. "At least we're being honest with each other. The fact that you're only willing to be okay with this for Kurt's sake is what makes you a good brother." Finn didn't say anything. "Hey. Everything's gonna be fine. The kids are okay with it, Burt and Carole are happy, and at the end of this you'll be Uncle Finn and I'll be done having kids for real." That got a small smile out of Finn. "Uncle Finn and Aunt Rachel," she mused. "Does that make us sound old?"

Finn laughed. "No, not really. Besides, you've already been Aunt Rachel before."

"What?"

"When Lily was two she started calling you Aunt Rachel when I was telling my college friends about you. I had to get her to stop so that they wouldn't think you were my sister."

Rachel giggled. Soon they went to bed, Finn wrapped his arms around his wife and let himself process the fact that his future niece or nephew was growing right there with them, knowing that everything was going to be okay in the end.

* * *

The next day at preschool, Jackie and Ariana were sitting silently facing away from each other in time-out.

"We do _not _cut in line at this preschool, and we definitely do not push other children away from the slide," Miss Natalie scolded.

Actually, Jackie had done the pushing. Ariana had just sort of tagged along.

"You two are not to move until the end of music time." Miss Natalie clapped her hands. "Alright, kids! Who wants to volunteer to help Miss Brenda set up the music stand?"

As soon as she knew the sound of their voices wouldn't be heard over the sound of the other children singing and playing instruments, Ariana whispered, "Any spy stuff today?"

"Nope," whispered Jackie. "Daddy says we're supposed to space them out in order to get it back."

"Get what back?"

"Whatever we lost. He says we came to New York to get back something we lost a really long time ago, and then we'll go to California after we find what we came here for."

Ariana frowned. "Aww."

"It won't happen too soon though," Jackie assured her. "We got a lot more spy stuff to do first."

"Okay," Ariana whispered.

"And you can't tell anyone any of that. Daddy says we won't be able to get it back if people find out we want it."

"Okay."

* * *

At Kurt's house, Rachel was watching him put up a large picture frame that was divided into twelve sections, each one with a picture of one of the original members of New Directions: Finn, Rachel, Kurt, Puck, Mike, Sam, Artie, Tina, Quinn, Brittany, Santana, and Mercedes.

"And over here is another one for all our kids." Kurt smiled and put up an identical frame. Lily was in Quinn's slot, Ariana and Aiden were in Rachel's, all three were in Finn's, Tina and Artie's slots both had photos of Anna Carly for the time being, and Sam's had his little girl. The rest remained blank.

"I'm so looking forward to being able to put my baby in that slot you have no idea," whispered Kurt almost tearfully. Rachel gave a smile that seemed almost forced. "What's the matter? You don't like it?"

"I love it," Rachel gave Kurt a small hug. What she was really thinking was that there was one slot that was empty but shouldn't be-Puck's. Lily didn't belong there, of course, but Jackie did. Not to mention that most of the former members of New Directions had just flat out not heard from him for years now. Ariana had stopped mentioning Jackie, so chances were he wasn't in New York anymore, either.

"Hard to believe Sunshine was ever part of the equation," Kurt remarked. "Have you talked to Artie and Tina lately?" Rachel shook her head. "You would not _believe_ the things I've been hearing about her. They won't tell me where they heard about it, but apparently Sunshine has gone completely nuts. For all that most people think of her as the next Adele, I don't remember Adele ever becoming a friendless drug abuser." Rachel's eyebrows shot up. "In a way maybe it's a good thing that we didn't become Broadway stars fresh out of NYADA. This way we'll at least be a bit more mature once we start performing for real." Kurt squeezed Rachel's shoulder. "Anyways, I need to get busy now. I promised Blaine I'd cook dinner."

Rachel smiled, said goodbye to Kurt, and walked out the door. On the way home, she couldn't stop thinking about Sunshine and what Kurt had said about her. She and the Philippeno girl had once been extremely similar, and even though they'd never really been close, they _had_ been friends and teammates for awhile. Instead of going straight home, she decided to stop by wherever Sunshine was working and have a talk with the young star. Her first step was contacting Mike at Artie and Tina's house to see if he knew where she was. He shakily rattled off the address of her favorite recording studio. Rachel's first clue that the meeting wasn't going to go well should have been that Mike warned her not to come unarmed and didn't seem like he was kidding. It took forever for Rachel to get into the recording studio past the paparazzi, the front desk, and Sunshine's personal bodyguards, all of whom she had to convince she actually knew Sunshine.

"Sunshine says you can come talk to her in the green room," said her agent. "Don't be too long. I don't want her to use up her voice."

Rachel found Sunshine in the green room rattling off a low pitched version of _The Impossible Dream _that sounded way too depressing for the lyrics.

"Um…hi Sunshine?"

Sunshine whipped around, letting her black ponytail slap her in the shoulder. She burst out giggling when she saw Rachel. "Rachel Barbra Berry Hudson!" she squealed, saying it so fast that it sounded like, "Rachel Barbarian."

"I just stopped by to see how you're doing. What's that smell?"

Sunshine giggled some more. "Just coke. Want some?"

"Sure," said Rachel, naively expecting to be handed a can of soda until she saw Sunshine reaching for the white powdery substance and a rolled up dollar bill. "I take that back. No thanks."

"Want to hear the new love ballad I wrote?" asked Sunshine. "It's called Death and Hell." Rachel shook her head. "Then why are you here?"

"I just came to check on you. I heard rumors…"

Sunshine's face snapped into a cold glare. "So you came to take pity on me? _Bitch._ Get out of here! Get out of here _now_!"

"Sunshine, I…"

"SECURITY!"

Rachel was extra appreciative of her husband, children, and relatively quiet suburban life that night.

* * *

**A/N: Sorry this chapter is so short and lame, but it's all leading up to something, I promise. Also sorry I haven't updated in so long because I've been focusing on my Once Upon A Time fics. Hope you still read and review!**


	10. Family Reunion

Rachel leaned back on the living room couch as Aiden took off down the hallway in alarm. Carole stepped out of the kitchen and Aiden grabbed her leg. "Gwandma! I think Mommy barfed up the baby!"

"What?"

"I'm fine," Rachel moaned. "I've just been having horrible morning sickness."

"I'll get you some water, Rachel, you just relax."

"Mommy, wanna pway Candywand wif me?"

"Mommy needs to rest, sweetie. Why don't you go ask Grandpa to play with you?"

"Okay." Aiden darted up the stairs.

Rachel sat back and turned on the TV as Carole brought her a glass of water and some crackers. "Do you need anything else?"

"Not right now, but thank you," Rachel assured her. With the exception of Finn, everyone in the family was being ten times more attentive to her than they'd been during her first two pregnancies. When she'd called Kurt that morning to tell him she didn't feel up to rehearsal, he had responded with "No problem, are you okay?" faster than she'd been able to get the words out of her mouth. Burt hadn't complained for an instant when Rachel had asked him to take Lily and Ariana to school that morning. Even the children seemed more obedient.

"Hey, you okay now?"

Rachel smiled at Finn poking his head out of his den to check on her. "I'm okay. Just gonna rest for awhile now and in awhile I'll try and eat something."

On the TV, a music video came on and as the melody played, the words, "Death And Hell: A Sunshine Original" appeared at the bottom. Sunshine appeared rocking on a porch swing inside a dimly lit room. In a wobbly voice, she began to sing,

"_If you live_  
_A hundred years_  
_I hope I live ninety nine_  
_And a half_  
_So that when you die_  
_I will be waiting_  
_To lead you across_  
_The abyss of death_  
_Where we will spend_  
_An eternity_  
_Living in the shadows of hell_  
_Living in the shadows of hell_…"

"Oh dear god," mumbled Rachel. "Does she think that sounds _good?_ She used to sound almost as good as me!"

"_And if you are good to me_  
_I hope you are good to me_  
_Then we will make love_  
_In those shadows forever_  
_But if you're not good to me_  
_Please darling be good to me_  
_All it's gonna take_  
_Is just one…_  
_One…_  
_Little…_  
_Push_  
_Out of the shadows_  
_And then you'll be in hell_  
_Forever I'll rejoyce_  
_While watching you burn_  
_I'll rejoice_  
_While watching your skin peel off_  
_I'll rejoice_  
_While watching your eyes fall off_…"

"This girl is a living trainwreck," said Finn as Rachel shut off the TV.

Just then, the doorbell rang. As Finn walked over to answer it, Rachel grabbed her laptop from the coffee table. While she was reading through a rather lengthy email from her Dads about how long it had been since she'd seen them, she got a Skype call from Brittany.

"Hi, Rachel, it's Brittany."

"I can see that."

"I really need your advice. Santana is four months pregnant with our child, and he or she still doesn't have a name. I can't decide whether I should name it Unicorn or Leprechaun. I like Leprechaun better, but I'm afraid that if I pick that name the baby might think it's Irish."

[INSERT BREAK HERE]

Finn nearly froze with shock when he saw a long-haired pregnant brunette woman standing at his front door. It took seconds for him to remember who she was and wonder what she was doing there.

"Finn Hudson! So good to see you again!" she squealed as she threw her arms around Finn.

"You too, Sarah!" he said through a broad fake smile. "What brings you to New York?"

"Oh, family business and the like."

A car horn honked. Finn looked over Sarah's shoulder and saw Burt coming up the porch steps and Sarah's husband sitting in the driver's seat of a packed minivan.

"Mommy, hurry up! I wanna see the Empire State Building!"

"Just a minute, honey lamb! Mama's gotta have a word with Mr. Finny first. And please stop throwing fruit loops at your sissy!"

"Do we have company?" asked Burt, surprised.

"Burt, you remember Sarah Williams," said Finn politely. "Quinn's older sister. Sarah, this is my stepfather."

Sarah shook Burt's hand warmly. "Anyplace we can catch up for a quick second?"

"Um…out here on the porch, I guess," Finn stammered. Burt took his cue and went inside.

The minute Burt was out of earshot, Sarah plastered a huge smile on her face and said, "Now what the hell is this I hear about you letting that pretty little wife of yours get pregnant with a gay baby?"

"We agreed for Rachel to be the surrogate mother for my brother and his husband, yes."

Sarah narrowed her eyes. "I know. My husband and I, we go to Blaine's mama's church. Or at least the church she _used_ to go to until she announced your wife's pregnancy so damn proudly. We couldn't believe she felt so alright about it. That got me to wondering how _you_ felt about it, being the husband of the adulterator and all."

"Um…okay, first of all, Rachel didn't have sex with Blaine."

"It's Kurt's then?" Sarah responded dully.

"_Or _Kurt. It was done medically."

"That don't make it any less unholy!" Sarah snapped, clearly having to put in effort not to raise her voice loud enough for the people inside to hear. "Do you even care about what you're exposing your children to here? I mean, I know your little ones may not even remember this in a coupla years, but think of what you're putting my niece through, teaching her that it's perfectly acceptable for two men to love each other and want a family."

Finn's jaw tightened. He had thought a lot of negative things about this whole plan towards the beginning, but _unholy_ had certainly never crossed his mind.

"I know _exactly_ what I'm exposing Lily to," Finn said finally. "And thank you for your concern, but it's really none of your business."

Sarah burst into tears. Finn just kind of stood there awkwardly.

"My poor baby sister," Sarah whimpered. "She must be spinning in her grave. She may not have been quite as beautiful to the lord as the rest of us were, but she _never_ would have wanted this."

"Actually," Finn smiled, "Quinn was the first one to let Kurt and Blaine babysit for Lily. This is _exactly _what she would have wanted. Thank you for stopping by, Sarah."

Sarah walked away whimpering, Finn smiling contentedly to himself. He glanced over at Rachel, who was now on skype with Santana complaining about morning sickness and how stupid the term for it was considering it lasted all day. Any remaining objections Finn had to Rachel being Kurt and Blaine's surrogate were now gone. It was funny. Out of all the people who'd tried to talk him into agreeing to this plan, the one who'd succeeded most easily had been the one trying to talk him out of it.

* * *

"Quinn's sister is in town?" Rachel whispered in surprise. "And you just had her leave?"

"What do you expect? She's hates the fact that Kurt and Blaine are having a baby and you're carrying it and she's here with her husband who I never like and her five and a half bratty kids. I wasn't going to invite them in or anything."

"You should invite them over to dinner," Rachel insisted. "It's not often that Lily gets to see anyone from Quinn's family, especially since Mr. Fabray passed away and Judy started going on all those retirement cruises."

"Are you sure?" Finn whispered back. "You can't cook, and I don't want to ask Mom to make enough food for all those people."

"Of _course_ I can cook. I'm pregnant, not comatose. Besides, this is New York, we could order in."

"Alright, fine," Finn agreed reluctantly. "But if anything goes wrong, I'll ask them to leave early."

"Deal," said Rachel. "Hey, by the way, did you know that Lily has a boyfriend?"

Finn smiled. "Yeah. Kurt told me."

"You sure you're okay with that?" asked Rachel.

"Of course. She's only eleven. She still thinks that going all the way means letting a boy kiss you on the mouth instead of the cheek."

The following night, Finn and Burt both helped Carole warm up the food in their suits while Rachel wrestled the three children into the nicest outfits they had that she was prepared to let them eat in.

"Mommy, if I have to wear a dress, can I at least wear my Cinderella dress?" whined Ariana.

"No, honey. Your Cinderella dress isn't a real dress, it's a costume."

Ariana stuck out her lip. "Real dresses come with tights. Tights are annoying."

"Rachel, I'm ready!" Rachel glanced up when Lily eagerly burst into Ariana and Aiden's room wearing an elegant pink blouse and short blue skirt that cut about six inches above the eleven-year-old's knees.

"Lily, you need to change into something longer," said Rachel as she picked up Aiden and pulled a shirt over his head.

Lily's gaze hardened. "You and Daddy _always_ let me wear this!"

"Not in front of your Christian Aunt Sarah."

Lily grudgingly left to go change. Once all three kids were dressed, they went downstairs to greet the Williams family, who were crowding the front entrance. Sarah Frances Fabray Williams was the first in the door, one hand resting on her pregnant stomach and the other securing her youngest child on her hip.

After Sarah had released Lily from the giant hug she was giving her, she looked down at Ariana and Aiden and squealed. "Are these your little brother and sister? They're so darn cute! How old are they?"

"Ariana's three and Aiden's two," Lily explained.

"Two and a _half,_" Aiden stubbornly clarified.

"You're just a little older than Johnny here," Sarah patted the youngest boy's head.

"How many kids do you have?" asked Ariana.

"Almost six," Sarah declared proudly. "This is Matthew, Mark, Eve, Luke, Johnny, and the new baby is Mary Quinn."

Lily smiled at the mention of her mother's name and cautiously patted her aunt's baby bump.

"We thought we'd have dinner in the backyard," Rachel offered. "Everything's set up out there."

Before the finished her sentence, Jed, Sarah, and the eight kids were all outside. Finn sighed and followed them out while Rachel helped Burt and Carole get the food together. When she got back outside, Lily was pushing the four youngest children on the swingset while her three oldest cousins ran around tearing up the lawn.

"Not too close to the pool!" Rachel called out. The kids ignored her and kept running. She and Finn glanced at each other and sighed. This was going to be a long evening.

* * *

Rachel checked her watch as she took a bite of mashed potatoes. Dinner had started only fifteen minutes ago, and there'd already been enough drama that it felt like they'd been sitting there for an hour. Sarah had bribed her kids with promises of TV later to keep them from throwing any more food at each other, but one food fight was all it had taken to send Aiden clinging to his mother's side for the whole meal. Ariana, on the other hand, was embracing the chaos. A little _too_ much.

"Ariana Christine Hudson, if you stick your tongue out one more time without swallowing your food, you're not getting any dessert," Rachel scolded.

Ariana glared. "I do it at preschool _all the time_."

"Well, this isn't preschool. And by the way, if I catch you throwing peas at your sister's cousins again, you aren't getting dessert _or_ playtime before bed." Preschool was causing Ariana to behave rougher in general lately, which was starting to make Finn and Rachel question the quality of the institution.

"Hey, Finn," Sarah poked Finn in the side. "Why don't you tell your son to man up? His sister is being more social than he is."

"He's only two and a half," Finn insisted. "It's fine."

"Yeah," Burt interjected. "Kurt was the same way at that age. He never liked crowds until he started performing onstage."

Sarah's husband, who hadn't said a word up until that point, suddenly looked up. "Who's Kurt?"

Sarah tightened her lips. "He's Finn's stepbrother," she whispered.

"Finn's _gay_ stepbrother?" Jed clarified. "You know…" Jed leaned around his wife to look at Burt. "There's a pastor I know who says he has a cure for that."

"Jed, _don't_," hissed Sarah. "It's not going to work." Jed relented and backed down and continued eating. Meanwhile Burt glared at the other man for a full sixty seconds before looking away.

Another fifteen minutes passed. Most of the older kids were done eating and had gone off to play except Lily, who was chatting with Sarah. Carole and Rachel had gone inside to clean up with Aiden in tow, Finn was keeping an eye on the kids, and Burt and Jed were having a forced amicable conversation about cars.

"Lily, no texting at the table," said Finn.

"Oh, ain't texting," Sarah assured him. "She's just showing me some pictures of her friends at school. Who's that kid?"

Lily blushed. "My boyfriend." Sarah's eyes widened.

"Finn!" she yelled, snatching the phone out of Lily's hand. "Look at _this_!"

"It's fine. I know about…"

At that moment, Burt stood up so fast the chair fell over and yelled, "Okay, _that does it_, I don't know who the hell you think you are to come to _my house_ and tell me whether or not you think…"

"You think it's fine that you're letting my _eleven-year-old niece _date? Do you _want_ her to become just like her mother?"

Jed raised his voice and stood up. "I don't know how conservative you think you are, but you _clearly_ haven't read what the bible has to say about your son's lifestyle."

Finn raised his voice. "Everyone. _Stop_." Jed, Sarah, and Burt all turned to look at him. By now the kids had gathered around to see what was going on. Finn sighed. "Drizzle, Rainbow, go to your rooms."

"What did we do?" asked Lily.

"I didn't say you did anything wrong. I just told you to go to your rooms." The girls walked off quietly. Finn turned back to Sarah. "I appreciate you and your family taking your time to have dinner with us, but I think this…gathering…is over. Burt, will you come in and help me with something?"

"Sure." Burt took a few steps after Finn towards the house. Then he turned back to face Jed. "But _just so you know_…"

Finn put his hand on Burt's arm. "Blood pressure, Burt." Burt walked into the kitchen to explain to the women what was going on while Finn ushered Jed and Sarah and the kids to the front door.

"Finn, wait," said Sarah. She paused and gestured for her family to go outside and get in the rental van. "Can I say goodbye to Lily? Please?" Finn didn't say anything. "I promise you I won't say anything about Kurt, or her boyfriend, or anything you don't agree with. I just want to see my niece before I go."

After a few moments, Finn responded. "Make it quick."

* * *

"Lily? It's Sarah. Can I come in?"

Sarah waited a moment before her young niece finally came to the door and opened it.

"I just wanted to say I'm sorry. For all the fuss. I'm sure you're old enough to understand that your mother's side of the family has very…different values than your father's side. But that don't mean I have the right to go around tellin your father how to raise you." Lily nodded solemnly. Sarah glanced around Lily's room. "What are you up to? Is that your mother's old yearbook?"

"It was my dad's," said Lily somewhat flatly. She went over to her bed, flipped the pages to the back of the book, and showed Sarah Quinn's memorial page.

"I don't think I ever saw this before," Sarah sat down on the bed next to Lily and gazed at the pictures of Quinn bordering the page. "Everyone thought you looked just like your Mama when you were a baby. You still do. Minus the hair and your funny little smile." Lily giggled.

"What was my mother like before she met Daddy?" asked Lily.

Sarah hesitated. "To tell you for the truth, he changed her for the better. You know she was a cheerleader before you, right?" Lily nodded. "There were times when she could be a real classic mean cheerleader. Perfect hair, perfect makeup, perfect attitude if you know what I mean. But I guess it was understandable. She wasn't very popular in middle school, and I guess she didn't want to go making the same mistake again."

"So that's all she was before she met Daddy? A mean cheerleader?" Lily didn't like the sound of that.

"Only because she felt like she had to be." Sarah squeezed Lily's shoulder. "She was also president of the celibacy club. Did a pretty good job with it too, I think. Well, until the beginning of October when she had her little incident in our hot tub with your Daddy." Lily froze when Sarah clamped a hand over her mouth. Both looked away in embarrassment. "Honey, pretend I didn't just say that," mumbled Sarah.

Lily blushed. Then she flipped through the yearbook thoughtfully for a minute while Sarah watched and tried to think of something else to say.

"I didn't know I was born premature," Lily finally said.

"Oh, you weren't," said Sarah. "I still have your birth announcement, you weighed nearly seven pounds. That's more than most of my boys."

"But you just said that…thing happened in the beginning of October. That's only seven and a half months before I was born."

Sarah shrugged. "Guess that wasn't how it happened then," she said, relieved that she apparently hadn't just told her eleven-year-old niece about the way she was conceived. Sarah gave Lily a kiss on top of her head. "I'd better get going. Jed can never manage to wrangle the kids into the car all on his own."

"Bye, Aunt Sarah," Lily gave Sarah a quick side hug before letting her go.

* * *

**A/N: Sorry, again that wasn't one of my better ones. I've written nothing but Once Upon A Time fics for a few months so I guess it's taking me a few chapters to get back into Glee writing properly. Thanks for reading, please review! :)  
**


	11. Love, Glee Style

Sunlight flooded the bedroom with one tug on the blinds. Kurt sat down on the bed next to his still sleeping husband, kissed him on the cheek, and quietly started singing.

"_Say you'll share with me one love, one lifetime  
Say the word and I will follow you  
Say you need me with you here, beside you  
Promise me that all you say is true  
Love me, that's all I ask of you"_

Kurt was about to keep singing when Blaine suddenly opened his eyes and pulled him into a kiss. "Hey," scolded Kurt teasingly. "You pretended to be asleep again."

"Only for the first thirty seconds." Blaine yawned and sat up in the bed. Kurt giggled and brushed back Blaine's un-gelled curls unsuccessfully. "There's something I have to show you. Come here."

Blaine followed Kurt to the spare room and gasped a little when he saw what was different about it. The walls, which had been grey the day before, were now pure white and decorated with wall decals of adorable smiling moneys, elephants, and giraffes.

Kurt glanced over at Blaine. "Do you like it? I know it's a little early, but I wanted to go with a unisex theme anyway, so I thought…" he was interrupted by Blaine pulling him into another kiss.

"It's _perfect_," Blaine insisted. "Let's get something to eat. I think Rachel said we should meet her for the doctor's appointment around ten."

* * *

In Lima, Ohio, Artie was sitting in bed feeding Anna Carly a bottle of warm milk. Tina was in the living room, probably talking to Mike about something again.

"Is Daddy really really getting sick of living with Uncle Mike?" crooned Artie to the little girl. "Yes he is!" The baby just cooed in response. Artie had to smile. It was difficult to stay upset around Anna Carly. Especially since she was really bonding with them now.

"Did you and Mike make any plans for today?" asked Artie sarcastically.

"Mike just left," said Tina. "He's going to stay with his brother for awhile."

"Whew," said Artie. "Surprised he didn't say goodbye. Any idea why he just decided to leave now?"

"Um, well, he…" Tina bit her lip. "He sort of admitted that the reason he was staying here was because of me. Like, because he _likes_ me."

Artie sighed bitterly. "I _knew_ it."

"It doesn't matter," said Tina quickly. "I didn't know until just now, and nothing's ever gonna happen."

"Do you wish you'd ended up with him?" asked Artie.

Tina's eyebrows shot up. "How could you even ask something like that?"

"Aren't we, and half our friends, living proof that high school relationships can last? You _easily_ could have ended up with him. Don't you ever wish you were married to someone who could give you children of your own?"

Tina's jaw dropped open in shock. "N…no, Artie. That's _never_ occurred to me." She moved closer and sat down on the edge of the bed right next to him. "You, me, our baby, our jobs at the school…this is all I want. It's all I've ever dreamed of."

She leaned and planted a long kiss on her husband's lips, and then they all got up and got ready for breakfast. All were content.

* * *

Kurt and Blaine watched intently as Rachel's obstetrician ran the usual tests, checked her vital signs, and asked her about symptoms. Their faces broke out into grins every time he said something was going well, and the rest of the time they just sat there hanging on his every word and glancing repeatedly at Rachel's stomach where they knew their child was growing even though she wasn't even remotely showing yet.

"You two look like kids on Christmas morning," Rachel teased.

Blaine turned to Kurt. "Do you realize that by next year we'll have a kid on Christmas morning? We can get one of those Baby's First Christmas stockings and everything."

"Everything definitely seems to be going well thus far," said the doctor. "But because you underwent fertility treatments we'd like to run an ultrasound just to be sure." He hesitated in case Kurt and Blaine started worrying that something might go wrong. Instead they both squealed.

"We get to see our baby for the first time!" said Blaine.

"Will you be able to tell if it's a boy or a girl?" asked Kurt.

"Not this early, no."

Rachel laid back patiently and let the ultrasound technicians come in and cover her flat belly in the cold goop.

"Is that the baby?" asked Kurt as soon as something came up on the screen.

"I'm not sure," said the doctor. "I can't see much yet. Do you want to hear the baby's heartbeat?" Kurt and Blaine nodded vigorously and squeezed each other's hand, then Kurt grabbed Rachel's hand too and nearly crushed it.

"Nervous?" she whispered.

"Very."

For a split second, Rachel was terrified that the doctor was going to put the stethoscope to her belly and there wasn't going to be a heartbeat. What if the embryo hadn't stuck after all? What if she'd failed them?

Kurt, Blaine, and Rachel all breathed an audible sigh of relief when the stethoscope was amplified and the steady heartbeat echoed through the room.

"That's my baby," whispered Blaine. He and Kurt both moved closer to Rachel's stomach as if that would help them hear the heartbeat better.

Rachel looked up at the doctor sharply. "What's wrong?"

Kurt froze. "What do you mean what's wrong?"

"I've had children of my own," said Rachel worriedly. "My baby's hearts weren't beating this fast."

"Hold on a minute." The doctor moved the stethoscope around a little bit as she felt Kurt's hand grow cold in hers. He looked up at them after a minute and smiled.

"There's nothing wrong with the baby's heart. It's simple: both of the embryos we implanted stuck.

Kurt's head shot up. "W…what?"

"Mr. and Mr. Hummel-Anderson, you're having twins."

That was when Kurt's heart started pounding.

"Oh my god," he whispered. Blaine wrapped his arm around Kurt's waist.

The doctor glanced up in concern. "If you aren't comfortable with that idea, we could see if Rachel is eligible for the two-minus-one procedure."

"No, no," said Kurt and Blaine in unison.

"This is amazing," said Blaine. "Terrifying, but amazing."

Kurt nodded in agreement. He wasn't sure whether to squeal or scream when the image of his two miniature unborn children came up on the screen.

"My babies."

* * *

Within an hour, everyone in the Hudson-Hummel-Anderson-Berry clan had heard the news that Kurt and Blaine were expecting twins. Blaine's mother half-screamed into the phone and then immediately sent over a box of matching unisex outfits. Francey congratulated them and demanded more information about Rachel's symptoms in medical terms the rest of them didn't even understand. Burt and Carole were secretly a little overwhelmed by the thought of two new grandbabies at once but were thrilled at the same time. Ariana immediately offered to babysit and push them in her doll stroller. Aiden started asking several times a day when the seeds were going to finish growing. Lily went straight to making room on her family tree for two new cousins.

That night, Finn went into Lily's room to tell her to go to bed. "Just a few minutes, Daddy," said Lily. "I have to finish my homework."

"Fifteen minutes and not a second longer," said Finn.

"Okay," said Lily.

"Hey, Drizzle?" Lily looked up at Finn with her sparkly green eyes. "What do you think about Kurt and Blaine having twins?"

"Awesome," Lily gave a thumbs-up. "I hope they're girls! Then you'll _really_ be outnumbered!"

"_Hey_."

Lily laughed. Then after a second, she asked, "What do _you_ think about it?"

Finn shrugged. "If Rachel's going to have two babies for Kurt and Blaine, they might as well be both at once."

"Yeah," said Lily. "Imagine the kicking."

Finn had to laugh. "Goodnight, Drizzle."

"Night, Daddy."

As soon as Finn left the room, Lily opened her backpack and spread the little homework she had left to do out on her bed. Just half a page of math problems a paragraph left on her essay. She finished quickly, repacked her bag, and then grabbed the yearbook from her shelf and opened it to the page with her mom's pictures on it. She always looked at it once before going to sleep. Lily ran her finger down the side of the page and felt something bumpy. She flipped through the book and found a study envelope inside with a note on the front that said, "You ar not allowd to menshon these until I tell you you can". Lily smiled and set the book down on her shelf and opened the envelope. Inside there was no note, just a small stack of photographs with dates on them so Lily knew they were taken mostly on August of 2009. The first was a picture of her mother and Santana in cheerleading uniforms chatting in the hallway. The second was a picture of a cheerleading pyramid with Quinn on the top. The third was a picture of Finn and Quinn sitting together in the choir room going over a script together. Lily immediately put that one aside and decided it was her favorite. There weren't that many pictures of her parents together, so those were special. She looked at her newest one and wished whoever had taken it had been a better photographer. As was, half of Finn was cropped out.

The fourth picture was of Quinn sitting outside on a bench reading a fashion magazine. The fifth was a picture of Quinn doing a cartwheel on the field. The fourth was a picture of Quinn in the choir room singing with Brittany and Santana.

Suddenly, Lily noticed that Quinn was never actually _looking_ at the camera in any of these pictures, not even the ones where she wasn't performing. Maybe these were supposed to be candid shots. Or maybe Quinn hadn't realized they were being taken at all.

The next three pictures were of Quinn eating in the lunchroom with Finn and the other football players and cheerleaders. One of them had only half of Quinn's face and mostly just her chest. "Gross," mumbled Lily as she flipped to the final photograph. What she saw made her freeze and almost drop the stack of pictures in shock.

Dated early September 2009, exactly nine months before Lily was born, there was a photograph of Quinn sprawled out naked on a flowery bedspread. Her cheerleading uniform was in a pathetic heap next to her elbow, and there were about six small empty alcohol bottles scattered around.

* * *

The sloppy handwriting had been one thing. The strangely worded notes. The pictures Lily had never seen.

_But why would my father give me a nude photo of my own mother?_

Between the questions popping up in her mind and the fact that just seeing the picture all by itself had scarred her for life, Lily Hudson got about four hours of sleep that night.

"Lily?" Lily woke up with a start when Rachel pounded on the door a second time. "Time for breakfast!"

Lily's head was pounding as she dragged herself out of bed and to the bathroom. Besides being exhausted, at this point she felt like she was going to be sick. Especially at the thought of seeing her father at breakfast after he gave her at that.

"Rachel, where's Daddy?" asked Lily when she got downstairs and didn't see him.

"He left for a conference," said Rachel. "It's only a couple of hours away, so he'll be back by tonight. Will you do me a favor and feed your brother while I get dressed?"

"Okay," mumbled Lily as she sat down across from Aiden's high chair and tried to coax him into eating his cereal.

"Mommy has an audition today," chirped Ariana. "So you, me, and Aiden get to go to Uncle Blaine after school!"

"Great," said Lily sarcastically. Which meant that Aiden would probably be staying with Blaine all day, too.

"Good morning, children," said Carole as she briskly entered the room and planted a kiss on each of her grandkid's heads. She stopped for a moment when Lily wrapped an arm around her.

"Grandma, can I talk to you for a second?" asked Lily quietly.

"It's not a good time, dear," said Carole. "Your Grandpa Burt and I are finally leaving for our honeymoon!"

"_What?_" said Lily. "You've been married for ten years!"

"Back when we got married we needed the money for a down payment on our new house and to help Uncle Kurt get into private school," Carole explained. "So we never got to go. But this morning, Burt surprised me with tickets for a cruise to the Bahamas."

"When do you have to leave?" asked Lily.

"Two hours!" said Carole. "Good thing he already made arrangements with Blaine to take care of your brother, huh? Imagine all the packing I have to do!" Carole dashed back upstairs to decide what clothes she wanted to bring.

Lily had to force herself to keep eating her cereal as her head continued to spin. She couldn't talk to her father or either of her grandparents about what she'd seen, telling Rachel would just be embarrassing, and Kurt was probably busy if Blaine was the one watching them.

As soon as Rachel got upstairs, Kurt started texting her frantically to call him. Eventually she sighed and picked up. "Yes, your babies are still fine. Now can I please get ready?"

"I was just calling to ask if you heard about Sunshine," said Kurt gravely.

"Nope."

"She was pronounced dead of a drug overdose early this morning."

"Oh my god," said Rachel, pausing between the closet and the vanity.

"I just talked to Mercedes about it," said Kurt. "There's going to be a private memorial service tomorrow afternoon in Manhattan. They said it's for family and friends, which I guess means us because Sunshine doesn't have any current friends."

"Did Mercedes say she was going?"

"Yeah. Mostly to see us again though, I think. Sunshine shut a lot of people out towards the end. Artie and Tina say they're too busy with the new baby to come, and Brittany and Santana just outright refused. Blaine and I are going, though."

"I definitely want to. I'll talk to Finn about it."

"Great," said Kurt. A pause. "Crap, I need to go pull my souffle out of the oven. See you in forty-five minutes?"

"Yep!"

As Rachel sat down and fixed her hair and makeup, she thought about what might have happened if she had been the one to land a recording contract straight after high school instead of Sunshine. She and Finn probably never would have gotten married, for one thing, which would mean her children wouldn't exist. And the possibility that she could have ended up as selfish and messed up as Sunshine in the end was very real. Even in high school and at NYADA she'd been a diva at times. Luckily she'd always had Kurt around to yank her down off her high horse and Finn to remind her of who she was.

By the time Rachel got downstairs, she only had five minutes to go before she had to drop Lily and Ariana off at school. She sighed when she saw Lily still wasn't done feeding the baby or eating. "Lily, hurry up," Rachel half snapped. "You're gonna be late for school."

Lily shook her head. "I don't want to go to school today."

"Don't be ridiculous," said Rachel.

"I put on my preschool clothes!" cheered Ariana. Rachel just sucked in a deep breath when she turned around and saw Lily was wearing her sweater inside out and a shirt and pants that didn't match at all.

"Sweetie, go change into your blue flower T-shirt, okay?" said Rachel.

"I don't want to," said Ariana.

"Ariana, I told you to change _now_!" snapped Rachel. She regretted it when she saw her little girl's lip quiver right before she took off to go change.

And that was when Lily burst into tears.

"Hey, what's the matter?" said Rachel. "Are you not feeling well?" Lily shook her head, put down the spoon she was trying to feed Aiden with, and hunched over in her chair. "Do you have a sore throat?" Lily shook her head. "A headache?" Lily shook her head. "A stomachache?"

"A little," Lily whispered.

Rachel was about to get out the thermometer when she remembered Finn had mentioned to her that Lily hadn't slept as much as she should have. "How much sleep did you get last night, Lily?"

Lily shrugged. "Four hours? I don't know."

"What on earth were you doing?"

"Nothing," Lily mumbled. "I was just laying there."

Rachel sighed. "Okay, fine. You can stay home today. Stay away from the TV and the cookie jar, and don't get out of bed until you've gotten some sleep."

After sending Lily back to bed, Rachel managed to wrangle Ariana and Aiden into their car seats and drop Ariana off at preschool. She came back home to fix her hair one last time before taking Aiden over to stay with Blaine. As she walked out the door she checked on Lily one last time. The girl was laying in bed with her arms wrapped around part of the blanket and her eyes closed, so if she wasn't asleep she was at least trying to be. Then Aiden and Rachel had to say a quick goodbye to Burt and Carole, because by the time Rachel got home from the audition they would have packed off already.

At preschool, Ariana and Jackie were playing together in the sandbox.

"I brought two things for you today," said Jackie proudly. "A cookie, and one last spy mission."

"Last one ever?" Ariana questioned.

"Yeah," said Jackie. "I'm going back to California soon. Daddy says we've almost gotten what we came here for."

"Aww," said Ariana. "I'm gonna miss you."

"I'll miss you too," said Jackie. And to her surprise, she actually meant it.

"What kind of cookie did you bring?" asked Ariana.

Jackie grinned. "Peanut butter." And the two went back to building their sandcastles.


	12. The Last Note

**A/N: The fact that part of this chapter deals with substance abuse was planned months ago and is in no way meant to allude to the fact that Cory Montieth recently checked into rehab. Get well soon Cory, we love you!**

**Also, I'd like to apologize in advance for making my best friend scream.**

Finn got home from the meeting pretty much feeling like he'd used up all his brain power for that day. The two little kids rushed into his arms as soon as he got home and decided that there was _no way_ he was getting a minute of peace and quiet until after at least five rounds of Candyland complete with Ariana teasing Aiden the whole time by telling him he was going to grow up to be Queen Frostine. When Finn finally made it to the kitchen for a cup of coffee, Rachel and Kurt were already in there arguing about how the audition went.

"I have Broadway experience for crying out loud, how can they _not_ be considering me for Mark?"

"Probably because you simply don't have the vocal range they're looking for for that part," said Rachel gently. "Come on, at least they're considering you for one of the main characters."

"Yeah, the gay transvestite who dies halfway through the play. And once again, _you_'_re_ being considered for the female lead."

"I'm not _always _considered for the female lead."

"I beg to differ!" Kurt stood up. "Every time we've ever auditioned for West Side Story, you get Maria and I get either Officer Krupky or a background dancer. Last

year we auditioned for Wicked and they gave _you_ the starring role and I had to play Boq."

"Boq is one of the most important characters in the story!" Rachel protested.

"He's a _munchkin_!"

"Hey, Finn," said Rachel as she suddenly noticed her husband had gotten home from work. "Do you know what you're planning on wearing to Sunshine's memorial service?"

"Can't I just wear the tux I bought for Sam and Marley's wedding?"

"Fine," said Rachel. "I guess Lily and I both have dresses we can wear and the little ones can stay in the playroom at the funeral home."

"Who's funeral are we going to?" asked Lily as she entered the kitchen and went to pour herself a glass of milk.

"A high school friend of ours you've never met," said Rachel. "The important thing is that you get to see Mercedes and Sam again." Lily smiled a little.

"You rested up, Drizzle?" asked Finn. Lily averted her eyes, nodded, and walked away. "Guess she's still kind of tried."

"Or maybe the mood swings have started early," Kurt teased. "Pretty soon, she'll be just as moody as we were when we were teenagers!"

"Yeah haha, in the meantime all you have to worry about is colic and midnight feedings and not dropping the head," Finn retorted.

"And dealing with embarrassing questions from strangers about how we're getting it," said Kurt. "Like _that's_ anybody's business."

"You should see how Santana's been dealing with the questions people are asking her," said Rachel. "'Boy or girl?' 'We know, but we're not telling.' 'When's the due date?' 'We know, but we're not telling.' 'Who's the father?' 'We know, but we're not telling.'"

_Know how that feels_, thought Finn. "I'm going upstairs to take a shower," he said.

"Are you sure you don't want something to eat first?" asked Rachel.

"No thanks," said Finn. "I'll be back down by dinner."

"And by the way," said Rachel, turning to Kurt. "Rent doesn't _have _a female lead."

"Does too."

* * *

Sunshine's private memorial service was a small simple occasion. If a memorial service that involves giving either a gold watch or a pair of diamond earrings to every single guest can be considered simple.

Kurt had never been close to Sunshine even in high school, but he had to admit that he teared up when he listened to her parents talk about how grateful they were that the guests had come and accepted some of Sunshine's personal affects. As someone who was about to become a father and already so afraid of something happening to his children, he couldn't imagine what it would be like to have the baby someone cradled in their arms and raised taken away. He glanced over at Rachel and felt a sudden impulse to thank her again, but Lily was sandwiched between them right now so it was impossible for him to whisper something to her.

As soon as Sunshine's mother started to tell stories about her from her childhood, Finn couldn't help but feel like he was at Quinn's funeral all over again. It was always sad when someone died before their time, especially unexpectedly. And especially from something as preventable as substance abuse. Finn wondered for a second if he or anyone else had ever told Lily the reason that Quinn had gotten into a car crash the night of the party. He looked over at his daughter to see if she was getting bored with the service and noticed she looked more annoyed than anything. When his eyes met hers for a second, she glared at him. Confused, Finn turned his attention back to the speaker.

Lily crossed her arms over her chest and tried to pay attention to what was going on, even though she'd never known Sunshine and mostly this was just annoying and depressing. It would be easier not to wish she wasn't here if it wasn't for the fact that she was still trying to avoid her father. How could he show her a nude photo of her own mother and expect her to be okay with it?

The service ended with a recording of Sunshine singing a cover of _What I Did For Love_, causing half the guests including Rachel to start bawling. As soon as she could without being rude, Lily snuck off to join the younger kids in the playroom. Finn consoled Rachel for a minute and then he left to catch up with Sam while Marley stepped out to feed their son.

Meanwhile, Mercedes was sitting alone on a bench listening to Sunshine's last released album play on a loop with tears in her eyes. "Hey?" She glanced up and saw Kurt and Rachel standing there. "You alright?"

"Someone offered me crack once," she whispered. "And I took it."

Kurt sat down next to her. "When did that happen?"

"Three years ago," Mercedes confessed. "It only ever happened once and never again. But what if I'd become addicted to it? What if I'd ended up like _her_?"

"But you didn't," Rachel insisted. Wordlessly, Kurt and Rachel each wrapped an arm around their friend and stayed with her until it was time to leave. In some ways, as far as they were concerned, nothing had ever changed.

* * *

The ride home from the service was mostly quiet. Finn and Rachel talked quietly about how their old friends were doing and how sad it had been while Ariana and Aiden listened to their tape of Disney Junior songs in the back and Lily put up with it. As soon as they got home it was time to put the little ones down for their naps, so Lily went to her room to read quietly and Finn went to his office to file some paperwork.

"Mommy, I don't want to take a nap," whined Ariana, who was already rubbing her eyes from fatigue. "I'm getting too old. Aiden is the baby. He should be the only one taking naps."

"I'M NOT A BABY!" screamed Aiden.

"Be quiet," said Rachel as patiently as she could. "If both of you don't take a nap, we're not having any dessert after dinner."

"Okay," said Ariana.

"NO FAIR!" yelled Aiden. Then he burst into tears from exhaustion.

Relieved to get away from the chaos, Lily locked herself in the room and sat on the bed. She wanted to look at her mother's pictures in the back of the yearbook again, but after the last thing she'd found in it she was a little afraid to pick it up. After a few minutes of reading something else, she finally reached for it, but picked it up as carefully as if she were picking up a baby bird or something that might blow up. Sure enough, just as she had feared, there was an envelope inside. Thankfully it wasn't the right size or shape to hold photographs, but it still made her feel a little sick.

Lily opened the envelope and pulled out a plain white piece of paper folded in thirds.

"_Dear Lily,_  
_Im sorry its taken me so long to get this won last letter to you. As you have probably figurd out by now, I am the first person who ever loved your mother. Really, really loved her. She didnt even know I existed. At first._"

Lily breathed a sigh of relief. This, at least, was nothing new.

"_You were conceived the night after our first football game of the season. Quinn was a good Christian girl, but shed had a few wine coolers to drink, and…it just happened. When I found out about you, I tryd to help her. I really did. But she wanted nothing to do with me. Nobody wanted me in the hospital room when you were born. I held you exactly one time when you were little, and that was after she died. Thats not to say that it wasnt partly my fault that I wasnt there for you the way I should have been. I didn't try hard enough. Especially not after she was gone. But that was because everyone around me, including me, kept telling me there was no way I could possibly be a good father. Now I've proven that I can. Im sorry that I didn't fight harder for you. Im sorry that Ive let you stay with these people who stole you from me for so long. But Im going to make it all up to you now._  
_We will be together soon._  
_Love,_  
_Noah Puckerman_"

Lily's heart stopped as the letter fell from her hand onto the bedspread. She curled her hands into fists to try and stop them shaking.

She knew who Noah Puckerman was. He was that guy on the football page and the Glee page with the bad haircut who Finn had said joined Glee club because he was friends with her mom.

This man…he wasn't…surely he couldn't…

This man…and her mother…

This man…was her father?

Rachel stepped quietly out into the hallway and turned in the direction of her husband's footsteps coming up the stairs.

"Hey," Finn whispered. "Did they go down for their naps okay?"

"Yes." Lily threw her bedroom door open. "Shh!" Rachel put a finger to her lips. "The babies are sleeping."

"Drizzle, what's wrong?" asked Finn. That was when Rachel noticed that the girl had tears streaming down her cheeks.

"_You're not my real dad_," she whispered.

"What?" said Finn, taken aback and visibly hurt.

"Someone named Noah Puckerman sent me a letter that says he's my real father and you stole me," said Lily. "_Is that true_?"

Finn clenched his jaw and didn't say anything. Rachel hung back and waited for him to respond. She knew she couldn't step in right now, but she also knew he wasn't prepared for this.

"You lied to me," said Lily. She shook her head. "_You all lied to me!_"

Lily stepped back into her room and slammed the door shut behind her. Rachel held her breath for a second waiting to see if the noise would wake up the little ones, but it didn't. Finn turned and headed downstairs, his wife followed suit after a moment.

* * *

Everything made sense now.

The picture of her as a toddler that said on the back that it was the last time her father ever saw her. The photos of Finn and Quinn only with Finn partly or all the way chopped out. The badly written notes.

But if this man wanted to get in contact with her so much, why didn't he just approach her directly? If he was afraid of coming near Finn and Rachel, how had he managed to get the notes into the yearbook? And what was this about him having proven that he could be a good father? Did that mean that she had more half siblings out there that she was actually related to?

Lily wasn't related to Finn, Rachel, Ariana, or Aiden _at all_. She was related to people she'd never even met, at least not in living memory.

God she felt _sick_.

Lily nearly screamed when she heard a knock on the door, more because she'd been lost in thought than anything. "Go away _Finn_," she snapped.

The door opened anyway. Lily looked up and glared. It was Rachel.

"You knew, didn't you?" whispered Lily as Rachel closed the door behind her and sat down on the edge of Lily's bed.

"Yes," Rachel admitted.

"What about everyone else?" asked Lily. "Ariana? Aiden? Uncle Kurt? Uncle Blaine? Grandma and Grandpa?"

"The little kids don't know," said Rachel.

"But _everyone else_ in this family knows that he isn't my real father?" snapped Lily.

"Finn _is _your real father," said Rachel. "As soon as your mother told him she was pregnant he started helping her out. He asked your grandma to let her live with him when she was kicked out of her own house. He was the first person to hold you after you were born. He taught you how to walk and talk and ride a bike, and got you ready for school in the mornings, and took you for walks in central park when you were little and bought you ice cream when you were sad. Doesn't that sound like what a father does?"

"But he _lied_ to me," sniffed Lily.

"That's something you need to work out with him," said Rachel carefully. "I'm sure it's nothing he did with the intention of hurting your feelings, Lily."

_What did he expect?_ Lily thought to herself.

"Can I take Star for a walk?" she asked.

"Sure," said Rachel. "Just don't stay out for too long." The eleven-year-old squirmed past Rachel and descended the stairs quickly while whistling for her pup.

Rachel sighed. She'd been hoping Lily would talk to Finn sooner rather than later, but maybe she just wasn't ready yet.

* * *

Half an hour later, Rachel found Finn in the kitchen making himself a cup of coffee.

"Did you talk to her?" he asked.

Rachel nodded. "I think she'll come around soon," she said, giving Finn an encouraging pat on the shoulder. "She's just confused right now."

Finn checked his watch. "She's been outside longer than she usually goes. Guess she really hates me right now."

"She does_ not_ hate you," Rachel insisted. "I wouldn't get discouraged if she doesn't want to talk today. She did _just_ find out." Finn nodded. Rachel squeezed his hand. "I think I just heard the dog barking. Maybe you should go out and check on her."

Finn wordlessly got up and walked over to the front door while Rachel finished making the coffee. As he got nearer to the front of the house, he realized it sounded more like Star was _howling_ then barking.

"Lily?" called Finn as he opened the door. "Is everything okay?" He scanned the streets and didn't see his daughter anywhere. "Lily?"

This time, he was answered with a small, distressed yip moments before the golden retriever puppy rounded the corner and trotted into view, her leash dragging in the mud behind her.


End file.
